Removing Chrome from Irons w/ Muriatic Acid?

FirePro · November 21, 2016

I thought I would see if anyone else has tried to remove the chrome from your wedges or irons for that matter with Muriatic Acid and what were your results?

sixtysevensixtyseven · November 21, 2016

It will eat through the chrome but won't dissolve the nickel. It will leave the wedges a little duller and they will have a yellowish hue to them. The finish isn't very pretty.

Kingcat990 · November 21, 2016

Miuriatic works to remove it, but you'll be left with a nickel plating. You'll have to reverse electroplate that. Just need some sulfuric, a battery, and some lead :D.

Best off to have a plater do it for $15/$20 a head.

WanLefty · November 22, 2016

I'll just add that some of these things are quite toxic (and need to be disposed of specially) so I'm not sure it is worth the risk to be doing it without a proper setup.

Wan

Matt J · November 22, 2016

Caswell has a cold bath nickel remover.

Nessism · November 22, 2016

I'm a huge proponent of DYI but messing with strong concentrations of HCl requires extreme care. You would do well to look for a plating shop in your area for some quotes. If you insist then that Caswell's nickel remover may be the way to go once you have stripped off the chrome with the acid. Save all the old solutions and look for a hazardous disposal site in your area.

FirePro · November 25, 2016

I have a dump not to far from hear that can dispose of the hazardous materials no problem. but it is starting to look like a plating company would be best. I walked into a local place and the guy was a golfer himself and seemed to not want me to do such a blasphemous thing to a set of old mizuno's and was going to charge me $60 a head, I need to find a place in the GTA that can do this on the cheap.

Nessism · November 25, 2016

Doing some reading and it seems that sulfuric acid is the stuff, not muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. You need to use reverse electrolysis and a 15% acid concentration. You need some lead and a battery (a battery charger too maybe). I've done lots of zinc plating at home and it's a fun and easy process. For this application you have to be careful though. Have a bucket of water handy, long gloves, goggles, and some baking soda to kill the acid.

http://www.finishing.com/403/45.shtml

smellysell · November 25, 2016

Found a local plating shop. Gonna give them a call about doing some MP 32s and see what the price is.

FirePro · November 25, 2016

Found a local plating shop. Gonna give them a call about doing some MP 32s and see what the price is.

I have reached out to a few but non of them have got back to me and the one I walked into said he would do it for $60 a head, I believe he just didn't want to do it after telling him they were old mizuno's. He told me to scratch the surface of the chrome and leave them outside for the winter and they would be rusted he even said leave them in your garage. These comments left me scratching my head hence I think he just didn't want to do it.

smellysell · November 25, 2016

Found a local plating shop. Gonna give them a call about doing some MP 32s and see what the price is.
I have reached out to a few but non of them have got back to me and the one I walked into said he would do it for $60 a head, I believe he just didn't want to do it after telling him they were old mizuno's. He told me to scratch the surface of the chrome and leave them outside for the winter and they would be rusted he even said leave them in your garage. These comments left me scratching my head hence I think he just didn't want to do it.

Yeah, Iron Factory would be another option. If local isn't cheaper I'll probably just send them off.

sixtysevensixtyseven · November 27, 2016

Doing some reading and it seems that sulfuric acid is the stuff, not muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. You need to use reverse electrolysis and a 15% acid concentration. You need some lead and a battery (a battery charger too maybe). I've done lots of zinc plating at home and it's a fun and easy process. For this application you have to be careful though. Have a bucket of water handy, long gloves, goggles, and some baking soda to kill the acid.

http://www.finishing.com/403/45.shtml

You need to use hydrochloric acid first to remove the chrome and then either reverse plating or an electroless nickel stripper.

I've done a few heads with a couple of the electroless stripper from a couple different companies. I've got a blasting cabinet, a number of buffers and a Burr King so I could handle the mess that was left after stripping the nickel. There is a lot of soot-like material left and it take a lot of blasting and buffing to get them to look good after they're stripped.

Best bet is to just send them out somewhere. If you're able to pull the heads off Priority Flat Rate shipping is cheap.