Kroil and Nickel Plate

[glenkans]

I have been using alot of Kroil lately on revolvers especially for removing fouling in the bores.Works pretty good getting the carbon etc. out of the cylinders. I thought about getting a nickel plated Trooper mk 111 out of the safe and shooting some 168 Keiths out of the thing. I like to start with a very clean barrel when using a new load and thought I'd do the Kroil treatment first. Then I remembered something from long ago about not using Hoppes #9 on nickeled guns. Will Kroil have the same effect or do you guys think I can risk it.If anyone anywhere would know,this bunch should.Thanks,Glen

[Hardcast416taylor]

"It`s the oil that creeps". If there is a smallest of cracks for it to get into it will get under the plating.Robert

[km101]

DONT DO IT!! I had to send my "old reliable" nickel Mod 19 back to S&W to have it replated after I used Kroil on it for about 2 months. The nickel started peeling on the muzzle and the front of the cylinder.

I t works great for everything else, just dont use it on nickel guns! IMO

[Mooseman]

That wasn't because of the Kroil oil...That was from the flame of the powder affecting the nickel plating.

[km101]

That wasn't because of the Kroil oil...That was from the flame of the powder affecting the nickel plating.

Moose: It hadnt done it in the nine years previous, before I started using the Kroil. And I was shooting the same loads before and after. I like Kroil. I just dont use it on nickel guns!

Ken

[44man]

Actually, nothing hurts nickel. It just does not stick good and needs a base plating. Anything that eats at the base plating will loosen the nickel. Anything that creeps in between will loosen it.
I have felt it has a different expansion rate then the steel too and getting a gun real hot might loosen it.
Get a loose spot and it will peel like tape.
The best thing I ever did was have a nickel S&W stripped and bright blue put on.
I don't know if I want any plated gun but some of the new stuff is tough.
Chrome can be a problem and I don't know how a chrome plated bore can take solvents that might work under it. I remember chrome peeling from bumpers and car parts.

[smokeywolf]

I've got to agree with 44man. With heat and cold, expansion and contraction. The molecular density of the nickel will result in a differing (slower) expansion rate. Also platers are notorious for not performing a sufficient copper strike on the base metal prior to plating.

If I had more money than sense and wanted a silver gun I'd have it rhodium plated. Stuff hangs on like grim death and doesn't peel from repetitive heat and cold. High Mohs hardness too.

We rhodium plated a cooking pot for the commissary at MGM. It was the prettiest and most expensive pot in the kitchen.

Lots of yellow gold jewelry is rhodium plated and then sold as platinum.

I wouldn't use Kroil or anything else with a low volatility on a nickel gun.

smokeywolf

[Mooseman]

I have seen countless number of nickel and chrome plated guns come in the shop over the years that all had plating flaking on the muzzle and cylinder and they had never been touched with Kroil oil , some had never been oiled with any kind it appeared. It was mainly from the powder , and the flame from the powder, as well as rapid heating and cooling. in those areas. A scratch in the nickel that exposed the copper combined with moisture, salts from your hand, and powder residue and the copper oxidizes between the dissimilar metals and it flakes..In this case steel, copper, and nickel or Chrome. In 99% of what I saw , flaking began at the Crown of the muzzle due to gas cutting as the Bullet exited the barrel, and once it started it kept going.
Holster wear/powder residue in the holster combined with humidity and acid tanned leather was the other culprit that ruined many plated finishes.
Oxidation and corrosion is what damages metals, not oils .