High Gloss Nickeled Sixgun

[Armand]

Hello!

Just acquired two .44-40´s, both U.S.F.A.´s.

The Longgun is a Replica Lightning, w 24" bbl, blued, made VERY nice.

The Sixgun is a 4 3/4" SA, hardly ever fired!!! ( except now by me :D )

It´s real high gloss nickeled, polished, mirrorlike. Unblemisched, no turning line on the cylinder.

Of course I didn´t photograph it immediately, I cleaned and lubed it slightly, and simply shot just under 100 rds of Magtech CAS out of it.

The general Gun and chambers and bore were a non - issue. Powder soot wiped off easily, thx to the mirror like surface.

But I couldn´t get rid of those black rings on the cylinder front. Not with ANY oil, not with plastic brushing. Ditto for the rear of the barrel.

Finally I gave up, and used Rem Clean, which, IMO is a mild abrasive. On a cloth, backed by a flat plastic, then my finger.

Just beautiful, nearly all went away.

BUT.

Small spots remained. Will a bronze brush, used WET, harm the extremely polished nickeled surface? Will it scratch it???

Will mild abrasives eventually remove the nickel???

Please help!!!!

I want to eat the cake, and have it, too:

I want the gun as the beauty it is, but I want to shoot it also ( NOT excessively )

TIA, Hermann

[MtGun44]

Yes, mild abrasives will eventually remove the nickel. Hoppes #9 also dissolves nickel, as do most general
purpose barrel cleaners that remove copper fouling. OK to clean with them, but remove all traces when
done. Nickel is far softer than steel.

Frankly, I think you are going to have to live with the black fronts on the cyl in my experience. Maybe somebody has
a miracle cleaner, the best I have seen is a lead removing cloth but haven't seen it offered in decades, may
still be out there. I haven't leaded a gun in a long time so no need for lead remover cloth, and I leave my
cyl fronts black.

Bill

[TheDoctor]

For what I have been told here before, what you can use depends on the type of nickel finish. Is it old school, or is it electroless plating?

[Armand]

http://www.lightningrifle.com/html/highres13.htm

Don´t know which Nickel ...

Yes, I´ve heard of Hoppe´s attacking Nickel, so I avoided it ( and I did remove the Rem Clean quickly ).

I´ll take pix, and then accept the black rings ...

Hermann

[Armand]

Correction:

it looks more like this:

http://www.usfasingleactions.com/html/highres3.htm

[MtGun44]

That would be electroplated, electroless is never that shiny, IME.

Bill