Hard Chrome

[Ak Guy]

Who is doing good hard chrome work these days? Is Tripp Research still doing it as well as they used to? Any others ? ........TIA.........

 

[Jim Watson]

Tripp is not doing hard chrome any more. Looks like their only business is magazines.
I read on the internet of Metalife, Metaloy, and APW doing hard chrome. I think Armoloy is still in business.

 

[bannockburn]

I have always used Metalife's SS Chromium M hard chrome finish (mahovskysmetalife.com). on my cosmetically challenged guns. Looks great even after many years of use and being carried in a holster for long periods of time. Had my Beretta Model 70S hard chrome plated a long time ago when both the original bluing and a rebluing job still had problems with it. The gun still looks today as pristine as the day I got it back from Metalife.

 

[CraigC]

This one was done by Accurate Plating about 17yrs ago, through gunsmith Jim Stroh. Bob Cogan is a good guy and they do excellent work.

 

[Sunray]

You should be able to have industrial hard chrome put on in any metal finishing shop found in the Yellow Pages. Only issue is that you will have to take out all the springs and send only the parts you want chromed. If a smithy does it, you get to pay for the disassembly and he's likely going to send it out anyway.

 

[Jim Watson]

Got to be careful about that. Would plating a pistol not be considered gunsmithing and require a FFL to hold even overnight?

 

[Ak Guy]

Thanx all....... appreciate the input. (Gosh I like this forum).

 

[bannockburn]

Sunray

You should be able to have industrial hard chrome put on in any metal finishing shop found in the Yellow Pages. Only issue is that you will have to take out all the springs and send only the parts you want chromed. If a smithy does it, you get to pay for the disassembly and he's likely going to send it out anyway.

That's what I liked about Metalife; they do the disassembly and reassembly after they've done the hard chrome plating. Ron Mahovsky even sent me a note back with the gun that said he was sorry it had taken a bit longer than usual because they had never done a rear sight quite like that before and wanted to make sure they got it right when they did it.

 

[BSA1]

You should be able to have industrial hard chrome put on in any metal finishing shop found in the Yellow Pages. Only issue is that you will have to take out all the springs and send only the parts you want chromed. If a smithy does it, you get to pay for the disassembly and he's likely going to send it out anyway.

Got to be careful about that. Would plating a pistol not be considered gunsmithing and require a FFL to hold even overnight?

In addition to not having a FFL do you trust someone with no gun refinishing experience to avoid overbuffing the rollmarks, avoid dishing the screw holes and avoid rounding the sharp edges?

 

[CraigC]

Yep, no way under the sun would I drop off a gun to be plated but just "any metal finishing shop found in the Yellow Pages".