I'm an old-school guy when it comes to finishes, with my favorites being bluing and chrome. I do like and appreciate the new and improved (in some ways) finishes, but I still love the old stuff the best.

Being that both bluing and chrome have become less popular, I figured to piggy-back on mrprovy's outstanding thread showcasing fine blued handguns and start this to show and also see some nice hard chromed examples.

Sadly, hard chrome has been a tougher and tougher option to order. While there are still vendors who do it, they have few and far between. Because of this, many companies that used to offer it (Nighthawk, ACW, Staccato, Atlas, CZ Custom, etc, etc) no longer do. Sad to see it starting to really fade out and other silver finishes, such as CRN taking over. While they are great and easier and safer to apply, they don't quite look like chrome.

I've got several chromed pistols, some polished and some matte. Here's a few of them. Please show off yours.

ACW Prime Elite 9mm









Guncrafter Industries Model 2 50GI







CZ Custom A01-LD







Tanfoglio Stock II







ACW Prime Elite 45ACP

CCR still offers their CPII. I had them do the frame of my 70 Series Goldcup several years ago.

Virgil Tripp did an XD 9 compact for me years ago.
I loved the finish, but ultimately sold the pistol.

Awesome!

Ford's Custom guns does a hard chrome finish. Ford's did a run of HK P7's about 15+ years ago.

Something that I have never researched (and is not clear to me): What is the difference between hard chrome and just chrome?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Something that I have never researched (and is not clear to me): What is the difference between hard chrome and just chrome?

In terms of gun finish, chrome generally means hard chrome.

Decorative chrome is not something generally used on firearms. It’s really thin and not durable.

Thanks bac. A chrome finish isn’t easy to photograph. Especially polished.

For that matter, neither is a really good blue finish.

quote:

Originally posted by bac1023:
It’s really thin and not durable.

Ah. So “gun” chrome versus soccer trophy chrome. I’ve long noted that adding an additional descriptor/adjective always improves anything.

Thanks.

I had a Colt Commander done in hard chrome by Virgil Tripp. I wish I still had that gun and I wish Tripp was still doing refinishing. He did absolutely beautiful work.

Hard chrome is an awesome finish. I prefer mine on the matte side, but I've seen some that were polished that were stunning.

I had Tripp Research hard chrome my P7 and six mags 20 years ago. Loved how it turned out.

For those interested in the differences between "chrome" and "hard chrome" and only slightly technical.

Here: https://www.uschrome.com/the-d...tive-chrome-plating/

quote:

Originally posted by Rawny:
I had Tripp Research hard chrome my P7 and six mags 20 years ago. Loved how it turned out.

Very nice. I had a chromed P7 and a P7M8. Sold them both to a couple friends some years back.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Thanks bac. A chrome finish isn’t easy to photograph. Especially polished.

For that matter, neither is a really good blue finish.

Agreed. I have a difficult time getting the lighting right on chromed pistols.

Here’s a couple others.

Some really cool guns in this thread!

As for which companies still offer hard chrome plating from the factory, I don't know of any left other than Les Baer and Magnum Research.

quote:

Originally posted by MacGyver:
Some really cool guns in this thread!

As for which companies still offer hard chrome plating from the factory, I don't know of any left other than Les Baer and Magnum Research.

Rock River does. That’s the one above.

Tanfoglio as well, posted above

^^^Thanks. I noticed those, but I didn't want to automatically assume they were bought recently. I do remember Tanfoglio offering chrome-plated models in the past, but I haven't seen one in-person recently, and their website isn't one I really frequent.

For those wondering about the CRN that bac1023 refers to in the OP, it stands for Chromium Nitride. It's applied via physical vapor deposition (PVD), which is more environmentally-friendly than the application methods of many of the old-school finishes. Unfortunately, this is part of the reason that many companies no longer offer hard chrome plating.

You may see CrN marketed as "Silver DLC", even though it is not DLC (diamond-like carbon). This is just because people are likely to be more familiar with DLC (also applied via physical vapor deposition) and its benefits. CrN also shares many of these benefits, but its appearance resembles chrome plating, whereas DLC's appearance resembles bluing.

Back 20+ years ago, I stopped in at a small local gun, archery, & fishing tackle shop that I frequented often. They didn't ever have anything high end, working people stuff.
Down at the end of the regular long gun racks behind the counter, they had added a short rack for the more expensive stuff.
I went and looked in the new rack and there sat a Ruger Red Label 12 gauge shotgun. It looked really nice! Until I asked to hold it.
The right side of the lower barrel near the muzzle had some crudely applied cold bluing, attempting to cover a "patch" of rust and pitting. The "repair" looked horrible.
I'm guessing here, I suspect the shotgun was placed into a soft case that got wet on the inside and the previous owner didn't know the case was wet.

They were asking a obscene amount of money for the shotgun in the condition it was in. If the shotgun didn't have the damage and the crappy bluing repair, it would have been a decent price.
Over the course of that particular fall and winter, that shotgun sat in the rack.
By February, all the hunting seasons were done and it was a super mild winter. The big perch derby got cancelled due to thin ice on the reservoir and the store was starving.

Each time I stopped in the gun store, I offered $50 less for the Red Label than at my previous visit. I usually stopped in about every two weeks.
At the end of March, the store owner accepted my offer of $700 and he "ate" the sales tax.
He didn't have to sell me the shotgun at my price, but he needed the cash to keep his business alive.

At that time, the place where I worked had an "Outsourcing Manager" that handled any outside vendor work, including plating.
I asked the guy if any of the plating vendors would do a hard chrome plating job for that Ruger Red Label barrel set.
He found a small family owned plating business that would do the over/under shotgun barrel set in hard chrome.
I sanded out the rust and pitting at home, and then bead blasted the entire exterior surface of the barrel set and shipped it off to the plater.

The plater called me and asked what thickness I wanted for the hard chrome and after a little discussion we agreed on 0.001" and they did the job.
When the barrel set arrived back from the plater, it was flawless. I did have to lightly stone the barrel monoblock locking lug surface to get the barrel/action release lever centered again.

I asked the Office Manager after about a month how much I owed for the plating job and she told me she hadn't received a bill yet.
I asked again after another six weeks and she told me not to bother her. So I didn't. I never paid a dime for the plating job.

This Ruger Red Label isn't a Browning or Krieghoff, it's just a nice over/under 12 gauge with screw in choke tubes. A nice working shotgun.
The only blued parts remaining are the trigger guard, sliding safety/barrel selector button, barrel/action release lever, and the nice steel pistol grip cap. The receiver is stainless steel, my favorite.

Most double barrel shotguns have the barrels soldered into the monoblock at the breech end, and joined at the muzzle also with solder.
After hard chrome plating takes place, hydrogen atoms typically migrate into the steel and cause a condition called "Hydrogen Embrittlement" which in firearms can be deadly.
The formerly strong steel parts can easily fracture and explode/rupture.
Hydrogen Embrittlement is easy to correct. You bake the plated part in a lab oven for a period of time (hours) at 275 to 300 Fahrenheit and the hydrogen atoms are driven out of the steel parts.
The parts that have been properly treated for Hydrogen Embrittlement are just as strong as they were before being plated.

Back to soldered shotgun barrels. The baking for relieving of Hydrogen Embrittlement can weaken the solder joints where the barrels are joined together.
Fortunately, Ruger Red Label shotgun barrels are brazed together at the factory, not soldered together.

RL1 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL2 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL3 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL4 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL5 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL6 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL7 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

RL8 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

The "YELLOW" arrows point to the area of the lower barrel where the rust and pitting damage was formerly located.

RL8_1 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr