Identifying the type of plating

My uncle and my cousin owned a scrap yard and they could tell what metal something was by putting it on a grinding wheel and looking at the sparks. I presume this would work with plating too, although if you can't grind on the plating alone it would be more complicated.

But regardless, you're not going to learn how to do this in the time you're willing to spend. Take it to soemone who does plating and ask him. He'll know. Probably won't have to grind either.

Although I'll admit I had trouble one time with what should have been an easy job. But it wasn't determining the metal. It was brass plated on pot metal and I wanted it replated. Looked great for a while, then gradually turned black. I took it back; he redid it and sprayed it with polyurethane or laquer or something. He didn's say what he'd done wrong the first time.

You could also try a scrap yard. I don't know what they know now. My cousin is 82. He was still going to work last I checked, and his son-in-law and grandson also work there.

Would doing a search for parts or maybe the original sales propaganda do any good? Maybe the manufacturers bragged about metal coated with...........................

Probably both.

Hard chrome plating is thicker and is used to increase surface hardness and reduce friction. It still isn't very think and a hard chrome plated part isn't necessarily shiny. Something like a hydraulic cylinder rod is highly polished before it's plated and that's what you see.

How are you going to re-plate? Seems you'd have to take it to a company that does that and they can identify it. I tried that once for a part for my boat. It was so expensive it was not worth it, you may run into that.