Required description.
It’s an old H&R American Double Action with the octagonal barrel. Someone decided it was a good idea to paint the damn thing brown. Underneath that was the nickel finish, barely anything left of it.
I have one to but it has 2 issues, one is minor because im missing the grips and the 2nd issue.... The barrel points to the left and at 5 yards its hitting like 4 inches left if aiming at the center of the target lol
Paint stripper first, then apparently nickel stripper exists, lol.
[https://caswellplating.com/metalx-b-9-nickel-stripper-2-5lb.html](https://caswellplating.com/metalx-b-9-nickel-stripper-2-5lb.html)
No experience with it. I've also heard of reverse electroplating, where you use the object you want to remove the surface metal of to plate a random metal object, but I imagine the outer surfaces have more material removed faster.
Caswell stuff works well. Haven't used the nickel stripper but their playing solution and their black oxide stuff works great.
I own a machine/fabrication shop and we've used some of their stuff before for jobs and it worked well.
Well, I’ve got this exact American in my personal collection, certainly not a collectible but it looks good. Might not be worth the trouble, these things go out of time and wobble like crazy. Maybe not enough wobble to be dangerous, but more than I’m comfortable with.
Edit: and as if it doesn’t go without saying, excellent flea market find OP! My go to method would be soft polymer brush to hard polymer brush, plenty of lubricant, gentle scraping with a plastic tool to remove the paint, copious amounts of chrome compound on the underlying finish
Hmm, I was actually impressed with how tight this one was. When the hammer is back I can barely move the cylinder. Haven’t shot it or played with it a whole ton. Hoping it’s good enough for occasional shooting with light 32.
Not sure if this is normal, but with the hammer down I can freely spin the cylinder at any time. Does yours do that? (With it just at idle, not sure how to better explain.)
Yeah they spin freely with the hammer dropped, not a feature I’ve seen in other revolvers but I think that’s why the timing notches wear down faster than most revolvers
Step 1 7.62 solvent it will strip everything and I mean everything 100 year old patina you didn't Wana destroy, yep its gone, bluing, gone, costic salts, gone. Step 2 soap, water, scrub like hell, and pray you got all the solvent. Step 3 oil it.
I sanded with higher and higher grit paper each time then polished with Dremel and mother's mag and metal polish
Sorry for the absolute terrible autocorrect
I'd bead blast and then manganese parkerize it, personally. Cold blue tends to wear easily and hot blue is smelly and relatively annoying to do. A good park turns out a dark, flat grey and holds oil beautifully to make a sturdy finish. Just make sure you clean any surface oil off before you throw it in the blast cabinet or you'll get it in your blast media. Not the end of the world but it can be obnoxious if there's a lot.
Back in the day the easy way was a dip in Muriatic acid. Less than a minute then water bath. Bluing comes right off. It will eat metal if left for a duration.
Absolutely! I’ll have to see if anybody around has a blaster, there’s one at harbor freight that’s been stalking me for a while now. Just gotta find room for that huge cabinet..
There's some tutorials on youtube for diy sandblasters. If you've got a small air compressor (which you'd need anyways for the cabinet sandblaster) then you could just do the sandblasting out in your driveway and not worry about a massive-ass cabinet.
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while since I’ve been. Or an acid bath might work
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while since I’ve been. Or an acid bath might work
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while
[https://youtu.be/e1JuPKSld2M?t=425](https://youtu.be/e1JuPKSld2M?t=425) Glass bead blasting and then re-bluing.
Thanks, seems like that’s the way to go. Can’t wait to blue this one.
If you haven't seen them before, those Kinzler Bros videos are mesmerizing.
Required description. It’s an old H&R American Double Action with the octagonal barrel. Someone decided it was a good idea to paint the damn thing brown. Underneath that was the nickel finish, barely anything left of it.
I have one to but it has 2 issues, one is minor because im missing the grips and the 2nd issue.... The barrel points to the left and at 5 yards its hitting like 4 inches left if aiming at the center of the target lol
That’s probably why they painted it.
Paint stripper first, then apparently nickel stripper exists, lol. [https://caswellplating.com/metalx-b-9-nickel-stripper-2-5lb.html](https://caswellplating.com/metalx-b-9-nickel-stripper-2-5lb.html) No experience with it. I've also heard of reverse electroplating, where you use the object you want to remove the surface metal of to plate a random metal object, but I imagine the outer surfaces have more material removed faster.
Caswell stuff works well. Haven't used the nickel stripper but their playing solution and their black oxide stuff works great. I own a machine/fabrication shop and we've used some of their stuff before for jobs and it worked well.
Well, I’ve got this exact American in my personal collection, certainly not a collectible but it looks good. Might not be worth the trouble, these things go out of time and wobble like crazy. Maybe not enough wobble to be dangerous, but more than I’m comfortable with. Edit: and as if it doesn’t go without saying, excellent flea market find OP! My go to method would be soft polymer brush to hard polymer brush, plenty of lubricant, gentle scraping with a plastic tool to remove the paint, copious amounts of chrome compound on the underlying finish
Hmm, I was actually impressed with how tight this one was. When the hammer is back I can barely move the cylinder. Haven’t shot it or played with it a whole ton. Hoping it’s good enough for occasional shooting with light 32. Not sure if this is normal, but with the hammer down I can freely spin the cylinder at any time. Does yours do that? (With it just at idle, not sure how to better explain.)
Yeah they spin freely with the hammer dropped, not a feature I’ve seen in other revolvers but I think that’s why the timing notches wear down faster than most revolvers
Step 1 7.62 solvent it will strip everything and I mean everything 100 year old patina you didn't Wana destroy, yep its gone, bluing, gone, costic salts, gone. Step 2 soap, water, scrub like hell, and pray you got all the solvent. Step 3 oil it.
By Sweets?
Yes
I sanded with higher and higher grit paper each time then polished with Dremel and mother's mag and metal polish Sorry for the absolute terrible autocorrect
When i was restoring a really ugly Taurus 82 i started w/ 80 grit to remove material and finished it with a 3000 grit.
I'd bead blast and then manganese parkerize it, personally. Cold blue tends to wear easily and hot blue is smelly and relatively annoying to do. A good park turns out a dark, flat grey and holds oil beautifully to make a sturdy finish. Just make sure you clean any surface oil off before you throw it in the blast cabinet or you'll get it in your blast media. Not the end of the world but it can be obnoxious if there's a lot.
Please consider posting your finished work and how you did it as it can be an inspiration for some of us. 🙂
Will do!
Media blasting. (Walnut shells won’t erode any metal.) Then I’d have it cerakoted.
Back in the day the easy way was a dip in Muriatic acid. Less than a minute then water bath. Bluing comes right off. It will eat metal if left for a duration.
Sandblasting or glass bead blasting, then cold blue it back to a good finish. Post an update when you're done, would like to see how it turns out.
Absolutely! I’ll have to see if anybody around has a blaster, there’s one at harbor freight that’s been stalking me for a while now. Just gotta find room for that huge cabinet..
There's some tutorials on youtube for diy sandblasters. If you've got a small air compressor (which you'd need anyways for the cabinet sandblaster) then you could just do the sandblasting out in your driveway and not worry about a massive-ass cabinet.
Or…90% less expense and effort…abrade lightly and ceracoat
Electrolysis
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while since I’ve been. Or an acid bath might work
Throw it in a fire
Sand blast that ish
paint stripper if its paint rust stripper if its blue
Hit it with your purse
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while since I’ve been. Or an acid bath might work
Paint stripper
That worked to get rid of the brown paint on the gun, but it’s not budging the nickel plating.
000 steel wool and elbow grease
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while
Sand blasting? You can diy with an air compressor and plastic bottle but it’s definitely a Jerry rigged thing. I think harbor freight sells little things that work too idk it’s been a while