Originally Posted by
T Stew
I'd buy silver ones in a heartbeat - but like I said I was unable to find any. I admit I probably should have asked the forums help finding a silver one first though, someone might know something that I hadn't found yet. 130 BCD ~50t (or slightly less) narrow-wide chainring (10 speed compatible, for 10x1 road experiment) is what I am after.
Ah ... for NW you're probably out of luck on silver ano. Even in black, 50t NW is scarce. If you want to do this right, find an industrial anodizing shop that will do walk-in piece-part work. They can strip off the black ano and apply sliver/clear. It may cost a bit, but you won't risk screwing up the metallurgy with caustic chemicals.
Note that drain cleaner (a.k.a. lye, a.k.a. sodium hydroxide) will strip not only the oxide, but will also eat away at the aluminum itself. If there's any surface treatment on the chainring you risk losing it. Even if there isn't, you'll get lots of irregular surface pitting and erosion. Probably doesn't matter on something as robust as a stem or seatpost, but on tiny little chainring teeth that are under massive loads it "feels" risky.