Peter, Dale and list,
Peter you are an amazing source of bicycle knowledge and I always read your posts which add substantially to my own knowledge. However, I would like to modify your comment that sandblasting can easily remove chrome. I have sandblasted all kinds of chrome plating on bicycle frames while refinishing them with varying degrees of results getting it off. Some, like you say, just flakes off right away. Sometimes part goes and part stays - which is a real problem because what stays is much harder than the steel underneath which is now going away faster with blasting than the chrome that is staying. And sometimes the triple plated (copper, nickel, chrome) chrome jobs like on the old Paramounts just isn't going away without real force.
Many years ago a customer gave me some kind of acid which worked great on getting rid of the chrome. It didn't effect the steel in the same way. I just looked at the back of my cabinet and saw that the label on this jar has lost it's writing so I don't remember what it was. Like Dale, I never use my expensive frame tools on chrome which is too hard for the cutters to work on properly.
Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan