You kind of lost me on this statement by using the terminology "stripped".
A little confusing as he is using "stripped" to indicate breaking down the gun and also for removal of the Ceracoat...but, let's approach this logically, he wanted it hard chromed and the frame is anodized aluminum with a Ceracoat finish.
With that as the basis...
1. The Ceracoat would have to be stripped off of the frame.
2. The anodizing on the frame would have to be stripped after the Ceracoat in order to electroless nickel plate the frame prior to hard chroming.
So, there were two potential places that stripping is required. The Ceracoat can be removed chemically with a paint stripper containing methylene chloride without damaging the aluminum.
Anodizing can be removed with sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), or a chromic-phosphoric, or phosphoric acid and sodium bichromate mixture.
The caustic soda method can lead to pitting if it is left on the anodizing too long as it will begin to eat into the aluminum after dissolving the anodizing.
If there are pits in the aluminum frame, that leads me to believe that the caustic soda method was used as something as simple as an oven cleaner can be used, while the other two methods require buying and mixing chemicals that are used in a heated bath...
Or, the smart way - send the gun to the firm doing the hard chrome and asking them to remove all of the finishes. Of course, that costs money, which in turn, reduces or eliminates any type of profit - making it more attractive to the gunsmith to attempt finish removal (including the anodizing) in-house.
Oven cleaner (the cheap way) left on the anodizing too long or not neutralized correctly = pitting...