I have a revolver from another manufacturer from the 1890's, and thought it would be a fun project to replate it.
Comparing my smith and wesson to this revolver, they appear to have the same type of finish, when viewed side by side.
Nickle or Chrome? What is the difference between standard and bright Nickle?
Has anyone used electroless plating?

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Pretty sure this one is nickel, and the difference between standard and bright is the quality of surface preparation.

Since the frame looks nice, maybe practice on the cylinder? Hope this is helpful.

__________________
Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

A relatively easy way to tell the difference between the two is that most nickel has a slight yellow cast to it and chrome is white or colorless. I am pretty certain that everything is factory original on your revolver.

I have never plated anything, however, we studied the process (or concept) in tech school. (We used reverse electrolysis to demonstrate electron flow).
I would really like to know if it will be a waste of time trying to use the "electroless" system.
Has anyone used this?
This pistol, has really good pearls, and functions well...it has been selected it as a canidate because it is a relatively cheap gun, with little pitting...may be able to get the surface near perfect before plating. (This gun also has 4 different finishes on it...Nickle, 'Gold', Blue and Case Hardened.)
Just want to get it right the first time.
Does anyone know if Nickle/Cobalt is better than straight nickle?

I also plan to "brush" plate gold in cylinder flutes and stop recesses, to duplicate the original finish...anyone familiar with "plug and plate"?

Is that an old H&R or one of the hundreds of other manufacturers that dotted the landscape at the turn of the last century?

It is an Iver Johnson.

Electroless plating works well. It's relatively easy to do and work with.

Getting set up isn't exactly cheap and if you're not going to do a lot of work,,you might consider just doing the prep work and then sending the work out for plating. Doing the reassembly yourself.

The big advantage of electroless is not having any batches of plating solutions around as with the electro-plate systems.
Most of those solutions are made up with very EPA (and personal health) unfriendly liquids,,cyanide in particular for gold plating. Nickel chloride & sulfate solutions for nickel plating
Buying as well as disposing of them is very controlled and tracked now.


The solutions used in electroless plating are far less toxic and easier shipped.

The polish and preparation is the key to the final look. As with bluing,,do a sloppy job of polishing and it'll show right thru the final finish. The brighter the polish, the brighter the plating.
Most plating is buffed to it's final finish after it is plated.

Those small brush-plating units will do a good job if used carefully.
As with any plating, everything must be perfectly clean.
Copper flash plate first on steel,,then gold or silver plate. Both will require the final plate to be buffed slightly. By hand and with something like simichrome works fine. It doesn't take much on the soft alloys.
Mask the surrounding previously nickel plated areas with shellac to avoid over plating them. Then remove it when done with alcohol.


Don't forget you have to de-plate the parts first.
There are stripping solutions for that now (nickel strip) and electro-strip methods.
Trying to polish it off and do an absolutely 100% complete & perfect job of it is a ticket to the mad house.,,plus hours of un-necessary labor.
You'll have enough polishing work to do preparing for bright plating anyway.

I had a Remingtoon R-1 parkerized 1911a bright nickel plated bt Ron Mahovsky and it came out great. You can also have it matt nickel or Hardchromed matt. Check him out. He is the cheapest by about half of the big guys and he includes everything except shipping.

It looks like an Iver Johnson made before they went to positive cylinder stops and metal safe for smokeless powder. That happened in 1909. Your revolver is almost certainly nickle plated: blued finish for IJs at that time cost another $1.