Saltwater/humidity resistant coatings

[dakota.potts]

Say you were a small shop looking to offer a service to customers to finish their firearms for salt and humidity corrosion, particularly outdoorsmen, fishers, boaters etc in a humid state like Florida. What would you consider to be the best finishes that are approachable with a relatively small level of technology?

My thoughts are to blast the frame, receiver and other major parts and parkerize followed by a good layer of cerakote or high temp epoxy based paint. Small parts and some operating parts (ie not the bolt face or locking lugs) could presumably be treated with something like a hard chrome plate.

What do you think? This is a thought experiment for the business part of my gunsmithing courses on what types of services you could offer to a target market.

 

[T. O'Heir]

You don't need to Parkerize before Cera-koting. However, industrial hard chrome on the entire thing is the way to go.
ANY paint will wear off too.

 

[tobnpr]

I am, and I do...
Cerakote.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Industrial hard chrome is a wonderful finish.
Nitriding is a wonderful finish.
Both are industrial processes that are best jobbed out after resurfacing the gun.
Caswell plating sells a reasonably inexpensive hard chrome outfit, but doing it yourself has it's drawbacks.
Electroless nickel is a good option that can be done fairly simply.
All of these coatings are far superior to any gun paint.

 

[tobnpr]

Bull.

First, how many hard chromed Remington 700's have you seen??

Second, nitriding does not produce a more corrosion-resistant surface than Cerakote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8PkpYgHdA

You keep calling these high-tech coatings "gun paints" as though they're an enamel house paint

 

[Bill DeShivs]

They ARE paints!
And, those paints produce a wonderful corrosion-resistant surface- as long as that surface is not compromised. Unfortunately, the painted surface is much softer than the finishes I mentioned.
I'm not sure how a Remington 700 figures into this, but hard chroming is too expensive for the factories to offer as an option.
Regardless of videos claiming otherwise, you are actually telling us that Cerakote is a tougher finish than the finish found on Glock pistols? Obviously, the nitriding was not properly applied in that video.

Painting guns with these paints is much preferable to bluing- it holds up better and there are color options. It's also more environmentally-friendly than the bluing process.

However- the paints are no match for upgraded finishes, and painting costs very nearly as much as the better finishes.

 

[45_auto]

You keep calling these high-tech coatings "gun paints" as though they're an enamel house paint

What do you think we should call a colored substance that is spread over the surface of a gun that dries to leave a thin protective coating?

paint
pānt/
noun
noun: paint; plural noun: paints

1.
a colored substance that is spread over a surface and dries to leave a thin decorative or protective coating.

 

[guncrank]

High tech gun coatings are tough but playing can produce a surface hardness that is measured in Rockwells.

 

[dakota.potts]

I've done some time looking into Black Nitriding and it does seem like a great finish. Does the finish reflect the polish of the pre-treatment in the metal as does bluing? Can you get the same or close level of gloss? Finally, are there approachable options for a shop to do such a service without having to invest an exorbitant amount for equipment? My understanding is that it can be done in a salt bath similar to bluing, but requiring a higher temperature (I'm reading something like 1,000* F)

 

[mete]

I don't know the temperature but I doubt it's high as 1000*F

There are various treatments using heat .Nitriding, carbo nitriding and the Glock finish. As far as I can find out , Guns started out carbo-nitrided like my HK P7 but that was not rust proof. Then someone discovered that an oxidizing treatment on top of the carbo=nitriding would give you great wear resistance plus rust resistance !! I assume HK has something like that now.
One of the difficulties in my research was propriatery info and then there were gov't regulations concerning the environment !!

 

[Jim Watson]

Severns Hard Hat is nitriding on well prepared steel. It isn't Royal Blue but it is glossier than many.
I doubt many if any places do it in house, there are relatively few process plants set up for it. Likewise plating.

There are several places doing good business with coatings because high tech treatments are expensive to apply and traditional ones are an environmental and economic burden..

Wilson will charge you $250 extra for the bluing that used to be industry standard. And that on a $3000 gun with paint coating standard.

 

[F. Guffey]

I built a few shrimp boat engines near the end of the road in Louisiana. Forget your guns, find something that will prevent rust on tools then use that on your guns.

F. Guffey

 

[FITASC]

Ask at Ford's in Florida. They do all types of gun coatings.