how to remove a nickle finish

[Catsmith]

looking at a old 1911 that someone had niclke plated (?). I guess..........

loking for a shooter, not a collection piece. the problem is that it is not a quality job and alot of the stamping was filled in by the coating.

Is there a way to get this off with out making things worse?

[Calamity Jake]

The only way to get all the nickel off is to have it acid stripped by someone that knows what there doing as to much acid or to long in the solution will also strip to much metal away, not a good thing!!!

[oldred]

looking at a old 1911 that someone had niclke plated (?). I guess..........

loking for a shooter, not a collection piece. the problem is that it is not a quality job and alot of the stamping was filled in by the coating.

Is there a way to get this off with out making things worse?



Best to have it done professionally but if you want to do it at home this is about the only safe and practical method available' it ain't cheap but it works.

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/metal-prep-coloring/pre-finish-surface-prep/room-temperature-nickel-stripper-prod1102.aspx




the problem is that it is not a quality job and alot of the stamping was filled in by the coating.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's highly unlikely that the plating is heavy enough to fill in stamping (I am assuming you mean lettering/numbers, proof marks, etc) and it's far more likely that Bubba got carried away with the buffing wheel prior to the plating job, this is an extremely common error when prepping a gun for rebluing or plating if the person doing it is inexperienced or careless. If that's the case, and likely it is, then the markings are gone and removing the plating will not fix it so you might be better off to just leave it as it is.

[bob208]

take it to a chrome plating shop. they can put it in the tank and reverise the process.

[W.R.Buchanan]

+1 on the plating shop. it will take all of 20 minutes to strip that plating off. Best to let someone who knows what they are doing do it for you.

I would still stand there and watch them do it. Kind of a strip while you wait type of service. If they just let it soak for hours it will kill the gun.

The operative point here is "knows what they are doing"

Plating houses don't tend to attract rocket scientists as their workers. Something about the fumes?

Randy

[oldred]

The reverse plating process job I have seen (I have seen only one and it was not a gun part) left a really bad looking surface that had an almost burned appearance to it that takes a lot of buffing to clean up and it sounds like this gun has been buffed too much already. For plating to be heavy enough to fill in markings, etc to the point the gun has a "smudged" look to it would require such a long time in solution that it would almost have to be done intentionally for some reason. OTOH, over-buffing and ruining the sharp edges and makings is an all too common error for both plating or bluing and if that truly is the case then removing the plating and having to rebuff the parts is only going to make matters worse.

[nhrifle]

How does the reverse plating process work? Does the item that is to be unplated become the anode?

[JIMinPHX]

I've been told that Hoppies #7 will take off plating, but I never tried it. I don't know how well it might work or even if it is true.