Nickel plating newbie questions

[Tokarev]

Every antique collector must have faced this question: how to make replacement parts look closer to original nickel plated parts.

This question arose again after manufacturing cylinder pins for a couple of Forehand and Wadsworth bull dogs.

Looking at the Caswell kits, they are kind of pricey (1.5+ gallon) and their rub-on kit is not too convincing for me (maybe it's just me!). Specially considering the cost of copper plating which I was told should be applied prior to nickel over carbon steel.

Please share your thoughts!:coffeecom

[looseprojectile]

Simple stuff such as cylinder pins can be made of stainless steel and highly polished.
I don't think I have ever seen a gun that showed signs of having been plated with copper before nickel. Most nickel plated guns peel somewhere eventually.
Chrome moly steel can be polished so that it looks like nickel though the color may be a little different. I have books that the author tells of how he had guns plated with copper, nickel and blued so he could tell at a glance which one it was. Walter Winant I think.
One problem with plating a gun is that the parts have to be made small to account for the thickness of the plating.

Life is good

[Tokarev]

Does anybody have experience removing old worn off nickel?
On the chemists forum they are telling me to just drop parts into nitric acid.
However from what I remember of chemistry, Fe is more active metal than Ni. I would expect more active iron to dissolve quicker than less active nickel.

[cuzinbruce]

You might check "Firearms Bluing & Browning" by Angier. IIRC he has formulas to remove the plating.

[Milsurp Junkie]

@Tokarev: I believe an ammonium persulfate solution at ~170 degrees F will strip the nickel from the steel without attacking the base metal. I will also remove the copppr flash coat if present.