I just posted a reply on the "Pirate Cutlass" thread and it reminded me of a question I've wanted to ask the braintrust for a good while now: "Does anyone have a fairly simple way of "de-choming" MRL sword hilts and fittings?" I've thought of sanding, but that would take forever. It there a quick, cheap, safe way?

I don't know that you'd want to attempt the removal yourself. If you do try sanding, use a respirator or high efficiency mask. Chromium is very toxic if inhaled or messed with if you don't know what you're doing. An auto chroming shop might be able to help since the have the equip. required to remove/deposit chrome. It's usually electroplated IIRC.

I think they might use nickel instead of chrome (at least that's what they used to do). In either case, you'll likely have to remove a layer of chrome/nickel, than a layer of copper to get to the bottom-most metal. Copper is often plated first since it adheres well to most other metals.

"Quick, cheap and safe" do not usually go together with things like plating, you might get one or two but not all three. Closest approximation would be to pay a plating shop to strip it off for you, that would probably work out to be relatively cheap in the end.
:D