Blue vs Nickel

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You at least have a chance at buffing out a scuff in nickel. But get a break in it and it's flake time. Bluing you can touch up with cold blue (Brownells Oxpho I'm told is the best) but it hs got to be the most useless finish in all of firearms finishing. All it does is look good. But dang does it look good. And the aging from honest wear can look just as good as a new one while a peeling flaking nickel gun just looks bad to my eyes. So I split the difference and have some of each:

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Just something satisfying about blue steel and wood . . .

But nickel is spiffy if well cared for. Stainless is for general all-round use. But stainless can be made to resemble nickel if carefully polished and some thinks that's the best of both worlds. For my part, why limit your options ?

 
I don't know about Smith and Wesson. What I heard right from the horse's mouth from a former Colt factory employee. 1911 frames with a minor cosmetic defect were often sent for nickel plating to hide the blemish. Whether it still happens today with Colt or with other manufactures your guess is as good as mine. The shoe-string relative worked for Colt for 2-3 years back in the late 70's.

I love the appearance of any nickel plated firearm but when the nickel finish goes bad, at least in my experience. Seems like it is a contagious disease and just keeps spreading.
 
I like the looks of nickel when it's good. But nickel doesn't look as good as blue if wear is evident. An 85% blued gun looks much better than an 85% nickel gun.

I see no real difference in care and maintenance.
 
I have nickel, blue and stainless guns. The powder burn marks on the front of the cylinder are more obvious and harder to clean on nickel and stainless. Nickel, in my opinion, is the hardest to clean because it smears unless you use metal polish or wax. You may not want to hunt with nickel because the sun flashing off of the surface may give you away.

Blue looks great and is easy to clean. However, if you scratch the surface of a blued gun you don't really have an option other than to try to cover it up.

You didn't ask about stainless, but I think that is the best material to deal with. You can polish light dings and scratches up with a scotch brite pad.

It boils down to personal preference. What do you like? They all shoot about the same. Most of my guns are in excellent condition. If you don't abuse them they will look great longer than you will.:D

If you want something for daily carry or hunting then it will take a beating and you need to think about how that affects the finish and grips.
 
I have heard it said that blue is a finish, and that nickel is a "skin". I have both, and like both. However, a dealer friend has a 4" 29-2, and the the muzzle looks like a nickel donut just fell off.
 
I belive a 125 years ago the thinking was nickle was more durable. Maybe with black powder it was. I have 3 or 4 nickle revolvers but far more blue. Since the stainless guns came out I would rather buy stainless and polish it up like nickle.
 
Tunachaser said:
nickel will also yellow, I'm going with hard chrome on my next refinish.
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I fully agree with this... I'm giving serious thought and it may just be money stopping me right now from having a 36 done in Metalife.

SaxonPig said:
I like the looks of nickel when it's good. But nickel doesn't look as good as blue if wear is evident. An 85% blued gun looks much better than an 85% nickel gun.

I see no real difference in care and maintenance.
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Sad but true. Wear in bluing shows character and can sometimes even enhance how a gun looks. Peeling nickel is just peeling nickel. Ick... :(
 
I am a firm believer that a blued handgun is a "working mans" handgun. I have 11 revolvers. All but three are blued. The three that are not blued are stainless steel. I have had a chance to buy several nickel guns but as Tommy Lee said in US Marshalls "son get rid of that sissy nickel gun". That sums up my feeling on nickel guns.
Howard
 
I think everyone should have some blue, some nickel, and some stainless guns. Just because. I like them all, for different reasons.
 
roaddog28 said:
I am a firm believer that a blued handgun is a "working mans" handgun. I have 11 revolvers. All but three are blued. The three that are not blued are stainless steel. I have had a chance to buy several nickel guns but as Tommy Lee said in US Marshalls "son get rid of that sissy nickel gun". That sums up my feeling on nickel guns.
Howard
Click to expand...

Back before stainless guns, nickel seemed to resist rust better than the blued finish. Many only slected them for that slight rust resistant edge. After stainless came along, nickel made a second fashion debut as "dolled up" BBQ guns.

You have to take whatever Tommy Lee says with a grain of salt....after all, he carries a GLOCK!!!.....and is just an ACTOR! :eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
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