Help, please: mirror finish for electroless nickel

I am going to try my hand at electroless nickel plating and am in the process of making a practice plate before I tackle a pair of SAA clones I have yet to engrave. I want to make these "bright nickel" not satin. I have been trying to polish this plate to a mirror finish (before I cut it) and I can still see "buffing lines". My question is "how much polishing is enough to get bright electroless nickel"?
The steps I have done so far are:
1200 grit paper
blending with 3m synthetic steel wool "000"
hard felt pad with Wenol metal polish
hard felt pad with Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish
Each step is buffed out with old t shirt material. Also, all of this is hand polishing, no machine work.

This is my first post here so I hope I'm getting my point across.
Thanks ahead of time.
Jeff

Jeff,
I am not an engraver, but have worked a lot with ENickle. It will show everything, ever last little flaw. Regardless of how much prep, I always find a flaw.
Good Luck
Butch

Hello Jeff, I have had quite a bit of experience with your subject. Of course, to strat with, as the old saying goes with bluing it also applies to plating with one exception. The old saying goes like this, what ever you put in the bluing tank is what you get out. Meaning if you polish the metal to a mirror finish and blue, it will have a mirror finish on it when you take it out of the bluing tank. However, electroless nickle is a little different. If you polish the parts out to a 400 grith polish and then plate. It will look like a 400 grith finish, except for one thing. Now the plating can be polished to a mirror finish. It can be a blessing and a curse. If you bead blast the parts with 320 grit glass beads at 70 psi and plate, you have a beautiful satin finish, but if you polish it a little to much it becomes too shinney. If you have any other questions on plating feel free to give me a call. I will tell you what I know.

Ed DeLorge
985-223-0206

Jeff,
The finish you go into the Electro-Less Nickel with is what it will look like when you come out of the plating bath. You will need a near perfect buff finish before plating. You won't get a very good finish without machine buffing. After plating you can also lightly color buff the electroless-nickel to a mirror finish. I was in the commercial polishing and plating
business for 25 years. Electroless Nickel is not all nickel it is an alloy of phosphous and
nickel. It does not look as good as Electro Plated Nickel which is pure nickel. To get
a perfect finish we always used high energy systems with a media.

Dick DeLaCruz
760-930-0800

welcome, jeff. send us a foto or 2 when your project is complete.

Dick,
Do you still do plating? Have you plated guns?

Thanks,

mirror finish

Thanks for all the replys. After reading all of these, I'm not sure I want to try this. Are there any "good" nickel platers out there that wont mess up the engraving?
I'll repeat Dennis's question to Dick "do you electro nickel plate guns?"
Also, if I decide to go with electro nickel, how much material is put on? I'm assuming that any shading cuts will need to be deep enough to not be filled with nickel.
This is going to be a winter project so I'm in no hurry.
Jeff

the guy i use is dale broadbent in chartley ma. ph 508 222 0620, has been in bus. since 1932. i just had a colt 1911 finished in 24 k and silver. i cut ultra fine shading and background lines which looks as if it was just cut . talk to him , you will learn much. give him a call ..................john pilk

Jeff, I don't know about electo plating but electroless takes about 45 minutes in the tank to give about a third of a mil. It shouldn't make you lose enough detail to worry. Less time means thinner plating but am not sure how thin you can go without coverage problems.