SAA finishes and refinishes...need help.

I am looking to buy a couple Colt SAA. I like the 125th Anny models but they have the gold plating on the trigger area and hammer etc. Same with the Nevada Anny but in silver plate. Can and how does one remove the plating, engrave it and have it re-plated? Is it worth the hassle?

Donny

i never cut thru gold plating, so don't know how that would play out. i have done such thru silver plating. i will say cutting thru silver plating can turn out well, or a total disaster. ! it's really dependent on the lunar phase when you're cutting.

I didn't want to cut thru them I was hoping to have them stripped then do the cutting then re-plated. I will just stick with the standard Colts. Thank you gentlemen!

Donny

Plating after engraving can be hit and miss. First the gun has to be prepared to a near mirror polish. Then you need to be very careful in your engraving to maintain that finish. It takes time...charge accordingly.

Prep...

There's 2 ways to strip (1) chemicals and (2) electro-chemically. The chemical method involves some fairly nasty stuff you can buy from Brownells. It is a slowwwwwww process and doesn't always work on really heavily plated parts. The electro chemical method uses reverse electrolysis. It will remove even the best plating jobs. Typically most professional platers use this method.

I'm not a huge fan of plating. It's just not my taste. There's plenty of really good platers out there that do an outstanding job but like most it takes time for it to happen.

Donny said:

I didn't want to cut thru them I was hoping to have them stripped then do the cutting then re-plated. I will just stick with the standard Colts. Thank you gentlemen!

Donny

Click to expand...

sorry, i misunderstood. i thought you intended to cut thru the plating.