Cleaning nickel plated guns??

[Cohiba]

Hey All,
One of my old cowboy buddies told me,he cleans his Colt nickel plated guns....Peacemaker.....with zippo lighter fluid. Then he lightly wipes the outside with zippo, light oil,wipe it off and store it.
They look very good. He's been doing this waaaay before CLP and other modern cleaners.
Basically,stay away from ammonia.
Cohiba

 

[HiPower]

Why you'd want to use something that's that flammable when other stuff is available that isn't, and does as good a job, is beyond me.

 

[Cohiba]

The way I see it .....he's been doing this quite some time. Maybe 40+ years and he probably see's no need to change. I don' agree with him....just wanted to know if any old timers....or anyone else has ever heard of cleaning nickel plated guns with zippo...or cigarette lighter fluid? That's all. Don't know why he chose lighter fluid....I guess he thought it was better than what was being sold in the late 1940's??
Cohiba

 

[mr ed]

Cause in the forties the lighter fluid was probably about 25 cents a gallon. while gun solvent was 50 cents for a little bottle.
and they also knew if you let it soak in some solvents like Hoppes #9 for a few days the plating would come off.

 

[cigman1st]

As a kid I played a nickle plated trumpet and the instrument store sold a polishing cloth that was burgundy color on one side and yellow/tan on the other. The burgundy side had a compound embedded in the cloth, nothing abrasive, that you would polish with it and wipe with the yellow/tan side. I would clean all my nickle S&Ws with hoppes, wipe them down afterward to remove gunk and crude. When they were clean, I oiled the parts that needed and polished with the two sided cloth.

 

[Shadowrider]

If you want to go "old school" on cleaning nickel plated guns, stick with Ballistol.

If you want something modern Eezox or CLP, though I don't know what the solvent part of CLP is, but I doubt that it would hurt nickel.
Hoppes #9 and all the copper solvents will jack up the nickel for sure.

Now naptha would sure work, but there's zero corrosion protection afterwards so you'll have to oil.

 

[guns are dumb]

My wife's uncle has an otherwise great condition Model 15 that was cleaned with Hoppe's #9 at some point, one time. I would highly suggest staying away from it.

 

[ronny]

Very little reason to use anything other than a very soft cloth.

 

[nich018]

I have used Flitz and did a great job.