Nickel plating my USFA

[Buck Stinson]

I have a few USFA single actions that I've purchased over the years, because I find that they are much more accurate than any of my Colts.  A few weeks ago, I decided to have my 4 3/4" .38-40, nickel plated.  It wears a beautiful pair of two piece pearls, but I'm not fond of the look of the pearls against the blued/cased finish.  Found a guy in Mass., who does a fine job of nickel plating, so will send the necessary parts off to him next week.  I fire blued all the external screws, base pin and trigger.  Wanted the ejector rod head nickeled and will fire blue the rod, but when trying to "unscrew"  the head from the rod, I found that the head and rod are NOT threaded.  The ejector rod head is pressed onto the rod.  After some difficulty, I was finally able to remove the head.  Very cheap way to do things in my opinion.  I ended up threading both pieces, so I won't have to deal with this in the future.

[Jack Straw]

I'm looking for a good nickel plate service.  Might I have the contact info for the shop you're using/

[Buck Stinson]

Jack,
The owners name Dale Broadbent, company is Reliable Electro Plating.  You can find them on line.  They do all kinds of plating, but I think their speciallty is firearms.  The application I'm having done is called Watts nickel.  Watts nickel is the closest you can find to the original early nickel plate.  He told me that those who want the old time white frosty nickel, want this plating.  I do not like or want the bright shiny nickle found on modern pistols.  I have many original 1st gen Colts, some plated and this is what I'm looking for.  Their phone numer is on the web site, so give him a call and decide for yourself which nickel process you're looking for.  I have never used this company, but they come highly recommended by the guys I know who do original restoration.  Hope this will help.

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[LonesomePigeon]

The Watt's nickel sounds really cool. Did they tell you how long it's supposed to take? They say you have to disassemble the gun before sending it, does that mean an SAA has to have the barrel removed or can they do it without removing the barrel?

[Buck Stinson]

You should send only the parts you want nickeled.  The barrel will not be removed from the frame, as far as I know.  I am sending only the barreled frame, trigger guard, back strap, cylinder, loading gate, ejector rod head, and ejector housing, as well as the hammer.  I fire blued all the screws , base pin and trigger myself.  My gun has almost all of the factory blue and case, which they will remove and re-polish.  After it is plated, they polish it again to bring out the old time nickel look.  The turn around on this work is approximately 3 weeks.  Sending it off in the morning.

[Jack Straw]

Thanks for the info Buck.   The Watts nickel sounds like some work I had done in the 90's by John Schultz who was a fine single action 'smith in Kansas (I think.)  It had a slightly frosty look as you described.  I'll look up Reliable.

[Buck Stinson]

John did an 1898 vintage 5 1/2" SA, .45 for me around 30 years ago.  As far as I know, it has the Watts nickel finish.  It's beautiful.  Sent my USFA off this morning.

[LonesomePigeon]

Well it's been about a month. Love to hear a follow up if you got it back yet?

[Buck Stinson]

Yes, I got the pistol back a week ago yesterday.  All I can say is WOW!!!  They told me 3 weeks and it came in at 19 days.  I am more than a little impressed.  They removed the blue and case color, then lightly polished the parts I sent.  The Watts nickel is a little whiter than hard nickel.  Because of this, it more closely resembles the old time nickel plating.  Lots of stuff going on here, but when I have time, I'll post some pictures.  Sure looks good with pearl grips and fire blued screws.

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Please do!!!

[LonesomePigeon]

Thanks for the update. It's great when things are on time.  Looking forward to the pics.

[Buck Stinson]

Finally getting around to posting this photo.

[Coal Creek Griff]

That's really cool, Buck, although you should have warned me to put on my sunglasses before enlarging the photo  .

Congratulations!

CC Griff

PS--Pretty nice belt and holster too!

[Abilene]

Verrry nice!

[LonesomePigeon]

Nice and thanks for sharing. Just curious, in your opinion how well were the markings preserved through the polishing process?

[Buck Stinson]

This pistol needed minimal polishing, once the blue and case were removed.  No wash out of any markings, what-so-ever.  These guys do pistols for a living.  They are very capeable when it comes to polishing a firearm.

[Abilene]

Do you shoot this gun?  I've heard stories about how fragile pearl grips are.

[Buck Stinson]

Yes, I shoot this gun all the time.  I really liked the factory blued finish on this pistol, but the case color sucked.  I had it nickeled, because I do shoot it and wanted it to be pretty.  Although the grips are dead ringers for mother of pearl, they are not.  I have several Colt pistols with real factory pearls and searched for 3 years before I found a set of fake grips that really look like the real thing.  Found them purely be accident at one of our local gun shows.  Brand new old stock, never been fitted to a gun.  Have no idea who made them as they were without a box, when I found them.  Paid $50.00 for the pair and took a chance that they would fit my grip frame.  Once I found that they were square in the frame, fitting them was easy.  I think they look great.