Sorry, yes... Jerry (and John!). Thanks for the tip fellows, I will get him going in that direction. He is a jeweler, not a gun smith: really has no practice in polishing / finishing steel. I don't think he has any idea of how fast a carbon steel surface can become negative ( oxidized), and...
I have a friend hellbent on gold plating firearms after he's engraved them. He wanted to know where to start and ask me, an old manufacturing jeweler for help but back in the day, we/I used cyanide solutions (no longer available). Where would he start to learn how to go about this? Any solution...