Which gun finish will hold up the longest and be most scratch resistant >

I'd say parkerizing covered with cerakote

Probably having something like Cerakote applied over parkerizing would be the most durable, without going to hard chrome or melonite or other expensive process.

All the applied finishes do wear, scratch, and get dinged with use.

henschman said:

I'd say parkerizing covered with cerakote

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+ infinity

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Take a look at the Birdsong Black-T coating. W.E. Birdsong & Associates Black-T.com (601)939-7448
The Navy uses this stuff, we have used it for years and it is awesome. Put on over parkerizing would be steller, but not necessary.

This stuff offers outstanding lubricity and exceptional wear resistance, it is also offered in several popular colors.

By the way, Black-T is superior to Cerakoat.

Uncle Mike said:

Take a look at the Birdsong Black-T coating. W.E. Birdsong & Associates Black-T.com (601)939-7448
The Navy uses this stuff, we have used it for years and it is awesome. Put on over parkerizing would be steller, but not necessary.

This stuff offers outstanding lubricity and exceptional wear resistance, it is also offered in several popular colors.

By the way, Black-T is superior to Cerakoat.

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Black t is not used by the navy they use gun kote. Black t is not tougher than cerakote. That's some good crack you're smoking.

Sent from my mind using ninja telepathy.

Just curious. What is the advantage of applying Cerakote over Parkerizing, as opposed to straight on the bare metal?

You should pimp her out in hard chrome.
(Heh heh)

Black t is not used by the navy they use gun kote. Black t is not tougher than cerakote. That's some good crack you're smoking.

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Sure it is.. Has been for years!
Cerakote is an excellant product, but it has nowhere near the lubricity of Black-T....
....as for the crack smoking, sounds like you might be the renowned expert on that...I don't fool with it!

Just curious. What is the advantage of applying Cerakote over Parkerizing, as opposed to straight on the bare metal?

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All paints need to have something to grip. "Tooth" as it is called. You can get that by roughing the surface a little with sandpaper, sandblasting, or using an etching primer. (GunKote uses a phosphate primer.)

Parkerizing creates a surface that is converted to a zinc or manganese phospated surface which is kindof, sort of, like a finely rusted surface. It's very rough and porous. How it works in most military rifles which are parkerized is that the surface is then wiped down with grease or oil and that microscopically rough surface soaks up the grease and holds it so it can't easily be wiped off. Basically, the grease is doing all the work of protecting the metal and the parkerizing is just keeping the super thin film of grease locked on.

When you combine the intensely "toothy" surface of a parkerized finish, with a very high-quality, strongly adhering and durable paint like one of these gunkote, cerakote, or duracoat finishes, you get something that's a bit better than the sum of its parts. VERY hard to wear the paint off of that hyper-etched surface.

Thanks!

In talking with the guys at Remington a couple of years ago, they went with a 100% of the firearm being parkerized finish on "Police" model of firearms, including inside of the barrel's chamer and bore. That is why police models have such dark bores. I kept mine lubed with Kroil, and followed up with a generous coating of RIG Universal grease...never experienced any rust, even after a day in the field hunting with misty weather.

Geno

including inside of the barrel's chamer and bore.

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Oh, wow. Don't know that I'd want that.

Tennifer (or one of the other names for it) would be my choice.

If you want to go crazy...

Tennifer/Melonite (very similar) metal treatment

then throw birdsong black-T on top of it.

We in the past offered refinishing services wich included the processes of physical vapor deposition.(PVD)
The process was/is used by most mainline firearm manufacturers today. It yeilds excellent quality and durability but was extremely costly, so customers were reluctant to buy the job.
If cash is not a factor for you, the PVD process may be an alternative.

Take a look at the Robar coatings--NP3 is very slick (self lubricating) and extremly accurate as far as coating depth ( not as important in an AK style gun imo)

They have tons of coating styles though.

I'd day just parkerize and use kggunkote maybe some K phos. If it fits in my over it's what use. If it doesn't fit I use duracote

I'm building a AK74 and going with Parkerizing and then Brownells Gun Kote. The Gunkote isn't as good as Cerokote but it's good and easy to apply. I've had very good results with it.

Uncle Mike said:

Sure it is.. Has been for years!
Cerakote is an excellant product, but it has nowhere near the lubricity of Black-T....
....as for the crack smoking, sounds like you might be the renowned expert on that...I don't fool with it!

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Dude I'm telling you the navy especially the seals use parkerization under kg gun kote. I've seen black t and it didn't wear good.

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