Do polished nickel and polished stainless handguns look the same?

[kazaam]

Aesthetically speaking, they're identical, right?

 

[Naybor]

Polished nickel is a plating.

Polished Stainless is made of stainless steel all the way thru.

Nickel has sort of a grey look to it. Stainless is brighter. (Most bright is chrome plated.)

I prefer polished stainless steel cause there is no plating to wear off.

 

[WC145]

Bright nickel looks like bumper chrome, it isn't grey though it can yellow a bit over time (decades). Highly polished stainless looks very similar. Hard chrome, like armoly or metalife have a silver grey look and can be shiny or matte depending on how the surface was prepared before finishing.

Bright nickel, a bit worn, the gun is 40 years old-


Highly polished stainless-


Hard chrome over polished carbon steel-

 

[BYJO4]

They look very similar if the SS is really high polished.

 

[Fishslayer]

Pretty close.

There was a discussion on magnets & stainless.
I can tell you that a strong magnet WILL stick to a S&W 686.

 

[JohnKSa]

There's not much difference. I doubt many people could reliably tell which was which when presented with a single item to classify.

If you have two guns side by side, electroless nickel looks a little more yellow than stainless. I'm led to understand that electroplated nickel (which is not common these days) is even more similar to stainless than electroless nickel is.

 

[JohnnyCremains]

I think there is a big difference. Polished stainless looks like chrome...like a bumper. Nickel does NOT look like bumper chrome. It's much more mellow and yellowish in tint. Age has nothing to do with it. Fresh nickel has a yellowish tint.

Colt on the left was nickel plated about a year ago. The one to the right of it is chrome. Stainless would look pretty much like this polished up. I prefer nickel over high polished stainless or chrome.

 

[beatledog7]

Quality nickel plate tends to look different as light angle and viewing angle changes. At times it can look yellowish, but at other times bluish or even pinkish. You can sort of see the effect in bigger nickel plated cases.

 

[Steve CT]

From a distance you might not tell a very good high polish stainless from bright nickle, I think that if either one was in your hand, you could easily tell the difference, and I own one of each.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Polished stainless steel and polished electroplated nickel do look very similar, but not quite identical. There is a subtle difference, with the nickel not being quite as bright.

 

[bannockburn]

To me bright nickel has a mirror like quality to it. I have some polished stainless guns too, and while they are very shiney, they don't quite have the same relective quality of bright nickel plate.