I have this black pake crankset:

https://www.pakebikes.com/cranks.html

And I was wondering A. would it be safe (aka not seriously damaging to the integrity of the material) to take the paint off the chainring, and B. what would I use to strip it? I can't tell what the black surface is, I know their cranks that AREN'T black or silver are anodized, but I don't know what kind of surface these have. Would paint stripper work? Or the oven cleaner method?

Any ideas?

Thanks

paint stripper should work fine

if they are anodized use draino

I know this is probably a noobish question, but how do you tell if something is anodized, or if it's just painted?

scratch at it with a razor blade a little if it flakes like paint its paint if it scratches and looks like metal its ano

Not trying to be as ass, but why didn't you just buy a silver crank?

those cranks are anodized. media blasting is the best, safest way to clean them up. if you take the point of a knife in an unobtrusive spot and push it in, paint will keep the depression, whereas anodizing will not as it is incredibly thin compared to a paint coating. another way to tell if it's paint or anodize, if you're not familiar with either, is to try and spot machining/tool marks. with paint, those will be hidden.

oven cleaner & brasso

keep it black : P I like it the way it is.

I said I want to strip the chainring, not the cranks.

I'm not sure if I will attempt to do this, but thanks for the advice. I could just buy another chainring in sliver, that might be the easiest thing so that if I don't like how one or the other looks, I can just go back.

I have a cheap silver Sugino chainring that came with the RDs. 130 BCD 48 T, what about yours?

+100000 chain rings are cheap, especially if what you want is plain ol' silver.