Nickel Plating
 

I was at the OGCA show this past weekend and saw a 1937 Luger that had been nickel plated. I thought to myself; "What a waste of a good Luger".

Then I got to thinking, how hard would it be to remove the plating? The Luger I looked at was all matching and didn't look like there was a spot of pitting anywhere on the pistol. Had 2 clips with it and they were in good shape too..........

Nickel plating is very easy to remove. I use nickel stripper from Caswell ( http://www.caswellplating.com/ ), and it dissolves the nickel without touching the steel. They recommend that you use it hot, but I just dunk the parts in cold stripper and leave them for a few hours. I have even left it overnight without seeing any adverse effects on the steel, so it's perfectly safe to use.

Another method of nickel removal is to take it to a reputable plating shop that does nickel plating, and have them remove it for you. The plating shop will have no problems doing it, and should not be very expensive....just a thought.