- A couple of final thoughts on Electroless Nickel for those who are interested: I mentioned before that the final appearance (after EN plating) depends a lot on how you prepare the underlying surface before plating. On our gun parts, we were trying to achieve a look that we call "French Gray". We found that the fine-ness of the grit and the composition of the media played a significant role. For example, if we used just aluminum oxide for blasting media, we'd get a very dull final appearance after EN plating. On the other hand, if we used pure glass bead for blasting media, we got kind of a cheap, glittery look after EN plating. The best result for our "French Gray" purposes on steel was achieved with a mix of glass bead and aluminum oxide and a plating spec of 3/10,000ths in thickness.
- We used that same blasting media on the regulator parts I've done. And, brass being software than steel, I think this media blast produces a little duller final look after EN plating than it does on steel. I may try it with pure glass bead media blasting next time and see how that looks after EN plating.
- And finally, there are different types of Electroless Nickel: Hi Phos, Low Phos, and some even have lubricants like teflon impregnated into them. At sometime way back, we settled on the "Hi-Phos" refering to the phosphorus content. I forget exactly why we chose that but there are some differences in the properties of these EN finishes and I think the links the Captain gave explain them in greater detail.
