our barrels are chrome under the stock finish

[stuch77]

Awesome revolver porn, Mr. Stuch77!

thankx guy

[stuch77]

You missed the trigger and hammer though! Now they stick out...

oh this gun was a mess. the trigger and hammer had rust on it so i just tryed to clean it up. but i might need to polish them.

[PYROhafe]

Is there a bonus to polishing anything besides the feed ramp or does it just look pretty? I mean dont get me wrong, it looks GREAT but not something im willing to try unless it has some serious advantages....

[Scoundrel]

Is there a bonus to polishing anything besides the feed ramp or does it just look pretty? I mean dont get me wrong, it looks GREAT but not something im willing to try unless it has some serious advantages....

You also get to play "The A-Team" when you shoot it.

Edit: Google image search is not supporting me very well on this, but one thing I remember from the 80's TV show (not the recent movie) is that they used shiny reflective guns a lot. Here's the best one I could find in just a couple minutes' worth of searching:

[Bawanna]

You missed the trigger and hammer though! Now they stick out...

The hammer and trigger are color case hardened, I doubt they would polish very good.

[Krusty]

I use Q-tips to polish my guns

[BOBBO268]

It looks pretty and less friction i would guess. I'm pretty sure that when we polish the barrel we're not taking off the nickel plating, we're polishing the nickel plating. I think whatever we took off was something else..... care to take this one JOCKO??

[stuch77]

The hammer and trigger are color case hardened, I doubt they would polish very good.

i guess i knew that but i do wish they had the stock coloring. thats why i just cleaned them up as best as i could.

[kerby9mm]

I too was under the impression that the barrel was nickel plated and I would assume they plate it for a reason. Did you do this just for the looks or did you have another reason? I wonder if you removed the nickel or just polished it...

I have pondered this nickel plating thing. When I got my 2 mk's they were both slightly dirty I assume from testfiring. When I took them down to clean them all I did to the barrels was to wipe them off. The feed ramps became shiny and smooth. The rest of the barrels stayed the same flat appearance. This tells me that only the feed ramp and areas outside the front of the chamber are nickel plated. I'm sure some will disagree but if it was a uniform nickel plating of all of the barrel why does only the one area become shiny with no polishing compound. If this is true then when you polish the rest of the barrel you bring out the luster of the stainless steel.

[harrydog]

I have pondered this nickel plating thing. When I got my 2 mk's they were both slightly dirty I assume from testfiring. When I took them down to clean them all I did to the barrels was to wipe them off. The feed ramps became shiny and smooth. The rest of the barrels stayed the same flat appearance. This tells me that only the feed ramp and areas outside the front of the chamber are nickel plated. I'm sure some will disagree but if it was a uniform nickel plating of all of the barrel why does only the one area become shiny with no polishing compound. If this is true then when you polish the rest of the barrel you bring out the luster of the stainless steel.

Or it could be the other way around and the feed ramp, chamber and bore are the areas that are not nickel plated. I know that some watches (like IWC) nickel plate their parts because it is more durable than gold plating and those parts are not shiny. They are more dull, like the outside of the Kahr barrel.

[mr surveyor]

from past posts here about flaking on the feed ramp, I believe that it is in fact the ramps/hoods/chambers that are nickle plated. A couple of years ago I believe they had a ban run of barrels from the folks that did the plating.

edit to add.... I would guess the whole barrel assembly gets plated, but the outer surface of the barrel isn't prepped to the same smoothness as the ramp, internals and lug

[TucsonMTB]

I would guess the whole barrel assembly gets plated, but the outer surface of the barrel isn't prepped to the same smoothness as the ramp, internals and lug

That is my understanding . . . not that it matters.

[SpecK]

I looked for the thread that jocko talked about this on and cant find it (sorry)

I definitely dont want to speak for ole jocko but Im pretty sure I remember him saying that you were just polishing the nickel plating and if you werent careful with those high RPM dremels, you could go right thru it.

not to say im not getting started on mine tonight, Just sayin- Hey i have a question tho, I like jeweling on barrels and hoods (i know on the tight spaced kahrs it will eventually rub off but i dont shoot my edc much) if i polish just to see what it looks like...can i still get it jeweled if i dont like it?

[jocko]

entire barrel inside and out is nickel plated, Kahr does give the feed rakmp a good polishing though, not sure if they do anythig witht he chamber as far as polishing goes. Flitz will not harmthe nickel plating. Nickel plating if done correclty is extremely hard, and corrision resistant. The military M9 (
Beretta 9) is nickel plated barrels. I polished all mykahr barrels with a cotton polishing cone and my dremel and some fine compound. once I got a nice mirror shine on it I stopped and it stays that way. Kahr barrels come coated on the outside (except the fgeedramp) with some dull coating over the nickel finish that wears off real fast and some think it is some kind of excessive wear but it is merely some coating they have on the outside of the barrel, not sure why, but if it wears or rubs off in time, no big deal at all. I don't think ur gonna wear the nickel finsih off f a kahr barrel with a polishing substance similar to flitz. My magna ported barrels get a dark spot around the ports, which harm nadda but when I clean my kahrs, I always toake some 600+ grit paper and polish that dark spot off the ports and I have done this for over 5years and the nickel finish is still IMO perfect. Nothig more than a cotton type polishing cone should be used, never a drum type sander plus common sense. I have found the cotton polishing cones from dremel go right iside the chamber with ease so my chambers are mirror smooth and shinny like the feed ramp.

[SpecK]

nice timing jocko! thank you for not letting me speak for you cuz i was wrong....again....(which my girlfirend loves to hear) -- I should just find the damn resource im trying to use or not post at all.

Thanks for the info-