What does it take to remove the nickel finish on a handgun? Like a 1911.
Can a do-it-yourselfer handle it or should it be left to the professional?
Thanks

There's two main ways:

1. Brownell's sell a liquid stripper chemical.
This is expensive and you have to be very careful to get ALL of the plating off.
If even a tiny bit of plating is left on the surface or in crevices, once the metal is given a chemical finish like bluing or parkerizing the gun may have small white "freckles" left on it.  Those are tiny bits of plating left, and the chemical finish can't color them so they look like white spots.

Lots of older nickel plated guns have an undercoating of plated copper to improve adhesion of the nickel.
The Brownell's stripper may not remove that, so you're still left with getting the copper off.

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/metal-prep-coloring/pre-finish-surface-prep/room-temperature-nickel-stripper-prod1102.aspx

2. By far the best way to strip nickel off is to have one of the firearms plater companies electro-strip it.
They first determine exactly what the plating is, then basically reverse the process.  Instead of depositing nickel on the gun, it removes the plating.
At the same time if there is an undercoat they can remove that too.
If you want, they can then apply whatever type of finish you want.

I strongly recommend NOT having a local plating shop do this.  There's a big difference between bike parts and gun parts.  Locals know all about plating bikes but firearms really are different.

Here's some of the top platers to check with.  With these people you get quality level work and no "little mistakes".
It's a good idea to actually talk to them so you're both on the same page as to what exactly you want:

http://www.apwcogan.com/

https://fordsguns.com/
APW-Cogan and Ford's are considered to be the top two platers.

http://techplate.com/index.htm

http://elitecustomguns.com/

http://www.mahovskysmetalife.com/PriceSheet%20Page%205.htm[/URL]
Been around forever and was one of the first to offer hard chrome for guns.  Often a little slow and communication can be lacking, but usually the cheapest.  Usually gets very good reviews.