Nickel Finish: How durable?

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

Anybody have any experience with concealed or general holster carry of a nickel-finish pistol or revolver?

How durable is the finish?

Any special care needed in cleaning?

And does any manufacturer still produce guns with a nickel finish? and if not, what would be the most recently-made carry revolver with a nickel finish?

[oscar]

I collect nickel smiths and they hold up fine. I clean and polish with Flitz.

[Standing Wolf]

A good nickel finish will last a lifetime. A cheap nickel finish will last most of the way home from the gun shop.

Cleaning solvents that contain ammonia aren't a good idea for nickel-plated guns. There's usually a microscopically thin layer of copper beneath the nickel. If there's any defect or crack or opening at all in the nickel, the ammonia can seep in and attack the coper, which will leave the nickel unattached.

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

A good nickel finish will last a lifetime. A cheap nickel finish will last most of the way home from the gun shop.

:D

[happy old sailor]

i dont know, but am going to find out as i picked uo a nickle M27 yesterday. it is far from recent manufacture, probably holster carried as it came with one. a "carried a lot " type and receiving not a lot of TLC. needs a good cleaning up, but the nickle is in excellent condition, except for some unidentifiable dried stuff on it (mucuus ?). bluck. it is tight as new with no drag marks on the cylinder. other than the smudges on the finish i cannot tell that it has been fired.

if this nickle finish is representative of a SnW factory job, i would think it wears like iron. had it been blue, it would be a mess and a candidate for refinish.

if you are tantalized by a nickle finished gun, i would say "get it". i am looking forward to many years service from this one, my new woods carry gun.

FYI, i also picked up an M29 in 6" that appears absolutely like new. also coming along home was a Contender with two bbls. both 14" in .223 and .44 mag.

i know, i went crazy and spent my SnW 460 money, but the prices were low and i just got sucked into the situation. i offered a grand for the pile and he said yeah. put up or shut up, right??? my lil Bronco will have to wait until June for the new shoes i promised him.

the foregoing crept off the subject, but seems representative of the life and times of a gunlover. am so tickled, i had to share.

[thatguy]

Cops in the South often used to carry nickeled revolvers claiming they held up better in the high humidity. I think maybe they just enjoyed the shiny guns and felt there was a greater intimidation factor when pulled on a miscreant.

This one is 27 years old and still looks good:

http://www.fototime.com/955A6A17F2A9CCA/standard.jpg

This one is 46 years old and is still going strong:

http://www.fototime.com/0CAADB8AC453824/standard.jpg

Here's one that is still nice (with a few small spots here and there) at 54 years of age:

http://www.fototime.com/B992FFDE907CF19/standard.jpg

This one has lost some of its luster. But all in all it's not doing too badly for a 90 year old gun:

http://www.fototime.com/0CF2E05A076606A/standard.jpg

[Double Naught Spy]

I have a Rem 870 Marine Magnum with the nickel finish. There isn't anything special needed to care for it. Of course, it is not the smoother mirror sort of finish as you see on some handguns and so things like fingerprints and smudges are not readily visible.

[mete]

There are two types of nickel plating. The one you see on the S&Ws are electrolytic. The other type is electroless which is actually nickel with some phosphorous.This is not usually seen on production guns but some BHPs were plated like this.It has a grey color and is harder and more durable than the electrolytic type.

[unspellable]

Mete,

I'll disagree with you on one point. I see quite a few guns with electroless nickle on them. (Have a couple myself.) It usualy isn't grey either. On the other hand, every example I have seen has had a matte finish, not a polished finish as one often sees on an electroplated job.

A minor point is that eletroless nickle will follow corners, edges, and lettering better than electroplated. Not that that has been much of a problem with electroplated guns. It's occasionally significant with machine parts.