Oh, and Nickle will not show fingerprints like Chrome will !i

I've gotten a nice shine out of nickel hardware with a soft rouge on a buffing wheel, but you have to be careful. Some rouges are very rough and are designed to strip plating. Don't let your first time playing with a buffing wheel and rouges be on good hardware. And, even when you shine nickel, it will not have the same color as chrome. Nickel will always appear darker than chrome, just as polished brass will always be darker than polished gold.

True. I meant that nickel will shine nearly as much as chrome. Chrome will always have a different color than nickel. And yes, buffing hardware is not for the faint of heart. It's easy to remove too much plating, down to the brass. Also, the wheel can catch on sharp corners and propel the hardware piece across the room. It's still the best way to polish nickel.

And now for the big question.... and feel free to flame me to cinders for it cause I want to hear opinions.

I happen to have most of the correct chrome parts that I COULD replace the nickel with. I've got a throw off, butt plate, muffler and all the lugs in very nice chrome. Would just need the rims and some tension rods.

But the nickel is original and if I swapped it out it would no longer be original. I suppose I could bag up all the original parts to put them back if I ever sold it... which I would never do unless I needed to in order to eat.

It`s your drum, you don`t want to flip it, it will look and match better to your kit with the chrome, You`re changeing one factory option to the other with chrome parts, the Nickle trim will pay for your hoops and rods, What are you waiting for ?

You wont hurt the value of the drum by putting the other correct trim option on it because Chrome trim is generally more pricey than Nickle depending !i

There are some instances where you might not want to switch chrome and nickel. Slingerland Radio King drums often had the words, "Chrome" and "Chrome OK" penciled inside the shells.

Another example would be Gene Krupa Radio King models from the late 1930's-early 40's. Drums that have chrome badge grommets will almost always be accompanied by chrome hardware.

Good info on this post, Thanks!

If you decide to store the nickel hardware loosely wrap in acid free archival paper. Art stores will have it. If just in a sealed plastic bag that builds up condensation could be a bad surprise when you dig out the originals down the road.

Creighton

+1^.I use them to polish up my 40's Radio King and a 50's WFL tom I have and they work great on the nicle hardware.

Steve B

Mark, thanks for that info. The 20" RK floor tom shell I'm working on has "Chxxxx" written in script with pencil with 16"x20" underneath. For the life of me I couldn't read what it said. Mahogany interior and pencil hard to see. It had a lug hole drilled through the word also making it a puzzle. LOL must be "Chrome" that would make sense.

Chrome is harder than nickel( although hey are both hard), so buffing chrome mechanically is a little less risky. However, unless the chrome job is a cheap chrome on steel( or bright chrome , which is in fact a nickel alloy), there will be nickel under the chrome. The actual plating , in a proper triple chrome job is, heavy copper, then a fairly thick nickel plate , which is a bit yellow, followed by an almost transparent layer of chrome, which is a bit blue. The chrome is used for hardness, oxidation resistance and to alter the yellow of the nickel to a more neutral silver. With care, you can buff a chrome plate, down to the nickel, if you want to, or with lack of care you can buff the chrome plate down to the nickel, if you don't want to.