question regarding maintaining Nickel

[PT1911]

As some of you may know, I recently had a bright and shiney Smith and wesson 29-3 fall into my lap. This is the first gun with a nickel finish I have owned. I realized I know little about cleaning and maintaining the Nickel finish. I have seen more than a couple of guns that STARTED off with a nickel finish that has long since been ruined...

advice?
secrets?
common sense?

 

[Jim K]

First, avoid any and all ammonia based cleaning products, like Hoppes No.9. Nickel won't adhere to steel, so most nickel guns were given an undercladding of copper first. Ammonia will dissolve the copper if it can get to it, and the nickel will peel off.

Otherwise, don't overdo the cleaning, and avoid abrasives. Nickel is softer than steel and abrasive cleaning products will scratch or even remove it.

Jim

 

[madcratebuilder]

What Jim said. I always put a few coats of wax on my nickle plated revolvers.

 

[PT1911]

any other nifty tips from the gurus?

 

[The Bushmaster]

I have a S&W Model 19-5 nickel plated. Or I should say that I have had it for 23 years. Bought it used when it was 1 year old. I have used Hoppes Benchrest #9 Copper solvent to clean it for all those years. When not in use (winter CCW carry) it resides in a gun case in my safe. All I do for the nickel is wipe it down with a clean dry t-shirt after cleaning. No oil. No wax. The nickel is as it was when it was new...

 

[unspellable]

nickle

I have five nickle plated guns. Two I bought new, a Colt and a S&W. Two S&Ws I bought used, one factory plated and one aftermarket plated. So far no problems.

But there's truth in the advice to avoid anything containing ammonia.

The fifth one is "Goering's personal Luger". Somebody used an ammonia containing cleaner on it and the nickle has started flaking away from the muzzle.

The muzzle makes a prime area for the ammonia to get to the copper as the plating comes to an edge there. Same thing applies to chrome. There was a post war cottage industry in Germany plating Lugers for the GIs. There is some debate as to how many of these were plated with nickle vs chrome. Either way there is a copper "primer" plating.