Nickel-plating - Some Questions

[The Mighty Beagle]

I just traded for a new M19 .357 which has a fabulous nickel finish, so I had some questions about caring for it, since it's my first nickeled gun.

1. Should I avoid holstering it? I'd like to keep the finish looking as pristine as possible.

2. Can it be polished if I do scuff it up?

3. How do I get the black stains off the front of the cylinder and around the forcing cone?

Thanks guys! I just shot the gun and cleaned it up (including the bore) with Ballistol, and that stuff seemed to work great. What an accurate gun - I'd sure like to keep it looking new.

 

[Jim K]

Glad the Ballistol worked. Here are some other answers.

As a practical matter, no, you can't polish out scratches. That is one of the advantages of stainless steel over nickel plate.

Nickel will wear in a holster, but much less than bluing. A smooth lined holster will almost eliminate wear to any finish.

Don't use any cleaning material that contains ammonia or is billed as a copper solvent (like Hoppes No. 9). Conventional nickel plating has a copper undercladding that ammonia will dissolve if it can get to it. This mostly happens at the muzzle and front of the cylinder or where there might be scratches, like around the screws. If the ammonia attacks the copper, the nickel will peel off.

Jim

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Thanks Jim,

I have decided to avoid Hoppes #9 and other solvents altogether. Hopefully, the Ballistol will be a long-term alternative, which is just fine since it smells a lot better.

As for the holster issue, when you say "lined", I'm wondering if regular generic cordura cloth holsters would be too abusive. I have two that will fit this gun and don't seem to cause much wear on my stainless guns. Would that cause a lot of wear?

 

[Sean Smith]

If you don't want wear on the finish, don't put it in a holster. Period.

 

[Hal]

A small piece of Lead Away cloth will take the black off the cylinder face and the forcing cone if you want. Works great to clean the chambers also. If you run .38spl's through it, run a fired empty .357 into the chamber first. The extra length of the empty .357 case will scrape the "ring" the shorter .38 round leaves. Blow the crud out, run a dry patch into each chamber, then run a small square of Lead Away into the chamber.
Takes all of about 30 seconds to do all 6 chambers.
Follow that by a normal cleaning with a Ballistol soaked patch. You'll be amazed how clean the Ballistol soaked patch comes out, and how clean the chambers are. The Lead Away will be 100% BLACK and so will the dry patch. The Ballistol patch will have a very slight gray cast to it.

The Nickle is impervious to the solvent on the Lead Away, unlike bluing, which the Lead Away eats for lunch. Too bad since the above method works so well.

I usually don't go to the bother though on the cylinder face. I just wet it down first with Ballistol and let it work while I do the rest of the gun. Then I come back to it and scrub it with a bronze brush.

One of the downsides to Nickle, besides the scratches, is the front of the cylinder is usually the first place the finish flakes off. My old 19-4, the twin to yours, has no plating left on the cylinder face after a few thousand rounds and 25+ years of use. No doubt my early use of #9 contributed to the flaking. The black residue offers a slight protection to the bare metal, so I leave it on.

Old Fuff gave a good tip in the other thread I overlooked. A good coat of wax does wonders for bright Nickle. I prefer to use Flitz gun Wax rather than car wax. You use so little that the extra cost amounts to practicly nothing in the long run.

Re: Holster use. The Nickle finish is several points harder than the steel underneath. Good liner shouldn't harm it in the least.

'sides, you're going to have so much fun shootin it you won't wanna wear it much anyhow

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Thanks for some real helpful tips, Hal! No one around here carries either of the products you mention, but both sound well worth the effort of tracking down.

I don’t plan to seriously carry this gun much, but it would be nice once in a while for special occasions.

And yes, shooting something so pretty is the epitomy of fun. It’s old-timey, yet with good sights is spooky-accurate.

 

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

Another tip, avoid paste's that have a gritty
feeling about them. Some people say that the German
product "Simichrome" has this quality; but I've
been using it for well over 30 year's, with NO problems.
It cleans nickel and stainless really well; provided that
you don't mind excercising a little elbow grease!

FootNote: FWIW, I just used a dab of Simichrome on a
1974 vintage nickel Colt Python that had been neglected
for year's. It cleaned-up so well, that the owner turned
down an offer of $1,000.00 for this 4" beauty!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[oscar]

Flitz is best for polishing the gun and cleaning the front of the cylinder. I believe that you can order from their website. Nickel Smiths are great.

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Thanks guys, lots of good suggestions.

Too bad there's not a FAQ on maintaining nickel-plated guns somewhere.