Removing Chrome/Nickel

[ccsniper]

I have an old Iver Johnson safety model revolver that is either Chrome or nickel plated. It is pitted pretty bad. I was wondering if any of you have taken a gun to a Chrome repair shop for Vehicles? The only place within a 50 mile radius of my house is a plating company that repairs old chrome on Motorcycle and car parts. I know they can strip it and re-chrome it, but has anyone else done this?

 

[dfariswheel]

The finish is almost certainly nickel, not chrome.

The only problem with a bike shop is that they know nothing about GUN plating, and guns are "different".
For one thing, you have to take into account the fit of the parts, and again, this is quite different than plating bike parts.

Don't be surprised if when you get it back you can't get some parts to fit back in, especially if they chrome plate it instead of nickel plating.

 

[rcmodel]

There is a problem with auto chrome shops in that they mostly work on fairly mild steel bumpers and Harley pipes.

Gun steel is generally of higher quality and heat treated.
(Well, O.K., maybe not your Iver Johnson!)

But unless they know what they are doing, a thing called Hydrogen Embrittlement can occur when the plating process drives excess hydrogen atoms into the high carbon steel.

That causes internal stress to the metal and parts can suddenly fail at a later date.

It was reported many years ago that chrome plated landing gear legs were suddenly breaking off of aircraft just setting on the runway until the cause was discovered, and a way to drive out the hydrogen atoms after plating was developed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

In short, auto platers should stick to Harley pipes and not do guns.

rc

 

[Sam1911]

There's also the technicality that gun refinishing is considered part of gunsmithing. To do commercial gunsmithing they need to have a Type 001 FFL

THE LICENSE

A license is needed to engrave, customize, refinish, or repair a firearm.

A person conducting such activities as a business is considered to be a gunsmith within the definition of a dealer. [27 CFR 178.11]

And if they take your firearm off your hands for refinishing (rather than doing it while you wait...which would be very unlikely) they need to log it into their bound book.

A gunsmith (engraver) does not need to enter in a permanent "bound book" record every firearm received for adjustment or repair. If a firearm is brought in for repairs and the owner waits while it is being repaired or if the gunsmith is able to return the firearm to the owner during the same business day, it is not necessary to list the firearm in the "bound book" as an "acquisition." If the gunsmith has possession of the firearm from one business day to another or longer, the firearm must be recorded as an "acquisition" and a "disposition" in the permanent "bound book" record. [27 CFR 178.125(e)]

-Sam

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Many years ago ,when I was bluing guns for the public,I would have a wheel plating company nickle plate singleshot shotgun receivers. This worked out great since nickle is plated on and then chrome is plated over the nickle. The shop would pull the receivers before the chrome plating process. The shotguns went together easily and looked great in contrast to the other parts which were blued. This did NOT work well at all on the S&W and Dan Wesson revolvers(1 ea.) we tried. My brother has my dad's shotgun that we did 20+ years age and it still looks great!