Okiefarmer wrote:
Qweshun for the gold/silver plated toys. Is the plating over brass or steel? I have heard both ways, so if it is plated on either sub-metal, how does one tell?
I believe the nickel is not plated directly over either brass or steel, but that a coating of copper is first laid down over either the brass or steel and then the nickel is plated over the copper. Not having a plating kit, I couldn't say for sure first hand. That's just what I've read.
I have no idea whether my nickel plated revolvers are brass or steel under their nickel. I have read that most nickel plated BP revolver frames are brass underneath. But not necessarily, because my barrel isn't brass and it is nickel plated too correct? I've seen lots of cartridge 1873 peacemakers that are steel but are nickel plated. So I don't think it is necessarily a given that just because a BP revolver is nickel plated that its frame is brass. I haven't done the magnet test yet.
On gold plating I'm not sure if copper has to be under the gold or not. But I don't think so because on my Pietta 1860 .44, about 3/4's of the gold plating on the face of my cylinder has blown away from the explosions. A little has blown away around the edges of the cylinder too. And I don't see any copper underneath but only see the bare steel. I called
Traditions to ask about the gold blowing off and customer service told me they had a few people have that problem. My cylinder is fluted and unfortunately they didn't have any gold plated fluted cylinders in stock. But they sent me a brand new non fluted cylinder that was gold plated...FOR FREE! That's some good customer service at Traditions! I don't shoot that new cylinder and just keep it for when I want to show the revolver.
But it doesn't really matter to me if my frames are brass or steel, because I don't shoot heavy loads in them so if my recoil shield internal ring is brass under the nickel, it likely won't wear away and my frame won't warp either using light loads. If I ever do shoot it enough to cause my internal recoil shield's ring to wear, I can always make a ring out of steel and attach it over the old shield's ring. That's a common fix. Steel frames are definitely stronger and therefore better, but brass frames shooting light loads are not bad either.
Okiefarmer wrote:
So if buying via one of the popular auction sites, one would just have to take the word of the seller, if he/she did not know for sure. Oft times the sellers of some BP don't now diddly about the firearm, they were just told what it should bring.
Yep. "You buys your ticket and you takes your chances". With the confidence that if something small is broken or needs tweaking, you can fix it yourself. Usually you can and if you carefully look at the auction photos they can sometimes tell you a wealth about the revolver. If I'm really interested, I copy the photos from the auction and then blow them up in photoshop and brighten and contrast them to see the revolver's details better.
You'd be surprised how much more you can see when you blow them up. Flaws you couldn't see in the smaller pics show up when you blow up the pic and brighten and contrast it. Then you will see dinged nipples, non polished casting marks, poor parts edge alignments, ill fitting grips, corrosion, scratches, etc, that you wouldn't ordinarily see.
All you can do is base your decision to bid on what the auction ad says, what the feedback is on the seller, what the revolver looks like in the photos, (and your own blown up brightened and contrasted photos) and your confidence in fixing just about anything that can break on it yourself. Also helps to know where to scrounge parts for out of production revolvers like ASM's. Some Pietta parts will work on ASM's, other Pietta parts won't and you have to get the ASM parts from Deercreek or VTI or else make them yourself. So far I haven't gotten any junk yet from the auctions....knock on wood.
You are certainly correct that many times the seller will have very little knowledge about that revolver or even black powder revolvers in general. I was looking at an ad on proxibid the other day, and they were listing a Rogers and Spencer revolver as an 1858 Remington. Lol. I am bidding on an 1858 Remy right now on gunbroker that they are listing as a Colt! Lol.
Even if the seller is knowledgeable, you can't rely on that. It is up to us to make sure
WE are knowledgeable about what we are buying.
Ultimately it's..."Caveat Emptor".....latin for....."let the buyer beware".
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