Cleaning Nickel finish

[ilovemyjeep]

Any suggestions for cleaning a nickel finish? I have an older revolver with the nickel finish. The long and short of the story is that the cylinder finish peeled right off after firing a few rounds of regular 38s. I had it re-nickeled and want to be sure I use the right stuff.

 

[NovaLondon]

Hoppes bore cleaner works on every metal part. Once your weapon is clean use a silicon cloth for a final rub before putting it away.

 

[Claddagh]

If there are any minor scratches or mircoscopic imperfections in the surface of 'tradtional' nickel plating, which is commonly applied over a copper substrate layer, then Hoppe's and many other solvents can (over time) degrade that foundation leading to loss of adhesion and peeling. This is most commonly seen when the solvent(s) are allowed to remain in contact with the finish too long, anywhere from a few hours to, in extreme cases, days, months or even years.

Personally, I have used Hoppe's No. 9 since I was a boy with no serious issues, but I have seen a couple of instances where nice old nickel plated arms were either left 'wet' too long or cased for storage while still damp with solvent residue and had the plating start to flake and peel-off. In the worst case, a very fine example of the old S&W Safety Hammerless .38 which had been stored in a soft case for a couple of years was found to have had virtually all of the plating on one side destroyed when it was next examined.

On the other hand, I know of several nickel plated guns routinely cleaned with Hoppe's and the like which show no deterioration at all. IMHO, if one is scrupulous about removing any residual solvent after each and every cleaning and never storing the piece cased and laying on its side, the risk of damage would seem to be minimal.

 

[M67]

Never use Hoppes on Nickle. There are better cleaners and don't take the risk.

Rem Oil or G96 for a wipe down, if you want to polish the nickle use flitz or simichrome.

 

[Jake46184]

Never use Hoppes on Nickle. There are better cleaners and don't take the risk.

Rem Oil or G96 for a wipe down, if you want to polish the nickle use flitz or simichrome.

Read what M67 has posted carefully. NEVER use any Hoppe's product on a nickel plated gun. Flitz is the best-known product for use on a nickel firearm but is not the only that can be used safely. Understand that nickel is a cheap finish and is easily damaged. Once you screw it up, there is no way to fix it.

 

[ilovemyjeep]

Thanks so much for the input! I really love this gun (my first ) and only had it a couple days when the finish started to peel off of the cylinder. The people at S & W were great and explained what had probably happened (as you guys did above) and were able to fix it up real nice, but didn't offer any suggestions for it not happening again.

I will do as you have recommended. Thank you all!