Hard crome finish

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troedw

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I recently acquired a 1908 Colt .380 Hard crome finished! The pistol looks and shoots flawlessly. My question is, does the hard crome finish add any value to the gun or take away value? What is the general feelings about hard crome finish?
 
troedw

I like hard chrome finish a lot. I have a Beretta Model 70S that Ron Mahovsky did his Metalife hard chrome plating to (a.k.a. SS Chromium Metalife), many years ago and it still looks as good as the day I got it back from him! If you don't mind the matte silver color (looks a lot like stainless steel), hard chrome plating is one tough finish!

As to your question, it certainly won't add to the value of your Colt to a collector but if you intend to keep the gun and use it, then the plating will give you many years of service as a very durable and protective finish.
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Depends. If it was a pitted rust bucket, it's probably about a wash once you figure in the cost of plating. If the metal was ok and the gun just had a lot of normal finish wear, I'd guess it's devalued. Hard to say without before and after pics. At the end of the day it boils down to whether you like it plated or not.
 
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Id say it adds value if its a daily carry, hard use gun, especially in harsh environments.

For purists, no, its probably more of a sacrilege. :)

Prior to things like Tennifer, I had a couple of blued guns that were suffering from rust hard chromed and it was their savior.
 
trackskippy
Prior to things like Tennifer, I had a couple of blued guns that were suffering from rust hard chromed and it was their savior.

That was the problem with the bluing on my Beretta not long after I got it. Wrote a letter to Beretta and they admitted there was something wrong with the finish on some of the early models that they shipped to the U.S. So I sent it to them and they reblued it but within a few months the rust problem reappeared. It was then that I decided to get it hard chrome plated. Had read about Metalife in a gun magazine and went with them. Besides it cost less than getting the gun blued again!
 
Hard chrome is a bit non-traditional but I do like it. Especially on guns that have seen better days, which is probably the case with your Colt. It's hard wearing and easy to clean. Here you can see it contrasted with matte nickel.

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Prior to things like Tennifer, I had a couple of blued guns that were suffering from rust hard chromed and it was their savior.
Tenifer is not a finish.
 
Like all have said above, for a working gun - I really like it. Easy to clean, easy on the eye, easy to care for…not something I would do to a collectable….I have had a few done, with the expectation to get a couple more done….
 
It kinda matters. Tenifer is not a finish, it's a surface hardening treatment that does nothing to alter the surface appearance. It's like case hardening without the color. People think the black on a Glock's slide is the tenifer but it isn't.
As I said, I could care less if its a finish or treatment, all I care about is it works, and works better than anything else Ive run into since, even hard chrome.

The early Glocks didnt have a black finish on them either. I sat through a Glock demo back in the 80's, where the rep ran a screwdriver across the slide leaving what looked to be scrapes on the slides "finish", and it wasnt the slide that was damaged. He kept rubbing the slide with his thumb as he kept talking, and much of what had been on there was already coming off. The slide wasnt damaged. My Gen1 Glock didnt have any secondary finish on it, nor do I remember my Gen 2's having it either.

Over the years, Ive had zero rust on any of my carry Glocks (except for the slide stop lever and metal sights on a couple, where the finish on them was worn off). Everything else, even hard chrome, has shown some rust. Might not be anything like it was before it was done, but rust is still rust.
 
The early Glocks were certainly finished. The black finish on a Glock, any Glock (got my first in 1991) is not tenifer. It's black oxide or some other finish applied after the fact. you can strip the black completely off a Glock slide and the tenifer treated surface remains. And is in fact, virtually rust proof. As I said, the tenifer treatment does not alter the base metal's appearance.
 
Well, as usual, you seem to know everything about everything, so I suppose there is no point in going on wasting each others time arguing about this.
 
Sorry Craig, but trackskippy is correct. The first Glocks, the P80 were Tenifered only. No finish applied, they were a soft gray, the color of the steel itself. None of these made it into the US for sale until fairly recently.

trackskippy, your memory is missing on the G19s though. All the 19s, including the very scarce first gens were Tenifered with black oxide finish. Glock had made that standard by then.
 
This is my earliest Glock, a G17 with a two letter/three digit serial number starting with "A". Got it in early 1988. I can remember seeing an earlier Glock that had more of a gray/green cast to it with both the slide and the polymer frame.
I believe mine has the black oxide finish on it.
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Sorry Craig, but trackskippy is correct. The first Glocks, the P80 were Tenifered only. No finish applied, they were a soft gray, the color of the steel itself. None of these made it into the US for sale until fairly recently.
That would explain why I've never seen or heard of them.


Well, as usual, you seem to know everything about everything, so I suppose there is no point in going on wasting each others time arguing about this.
There's nothing to argue about, fact is fact. I don't know everything about everything but I do know this. There's no shame in learning something new, or blood involved.

https://gunivore.com/pistol/the-many-different-glock-19-finishes

Quote from the article:

"Many confuse the gun’s metal treatment with the gun’s finish. These are two separate terms. A treatment is, for instance, Tenifer. Contrary to what many believe, Tenifer is not a finish. It is, in fact, a heat treatment which the gun’s steel undergoes, and which hardens the steel and protects it from corrosion, heat, and wear. Tenifer is even effective to a certain water depth. A treatment is applied before the finish. The gun’s finish is exactly what it sounds like – the final procedure which the gun undergoes, and which ends the manufacturing process."
 
Not sure how we got on a tangent about Glock finishes in a thread about hard chrome.

Value is subjective. You have the cost you would sell it for somehow meeting the price someone is willing to pay. Hard chrome is a great and durable finish if it is done correctly. But for vintage firearms it tends to take away collector value rather than add it.
 
Ooh!

Hard chrome!

Just wanted to pimp...

https://fordsguns.com/

They used to do the finishing work for Magnum Research (Deagle!).

I send them all my refurbished FrankenDeagles for the now - discontinued Matte Chrome finish...

Like like like.
 
Alteration generally detracts value from collectibles.

I have a hard chrome finished pistol, I had Virgil Tripp do before he quit doing them, it is durable. Stays better looking than stainless as far as holster wear goes.

Same here! He did a great job for $75 back in `98 or so on my Glock G31...

pBBviLubS1qDh0k39GW-SQ.jpeg

Would not hesitate to get a pistol hard-chromed if it made sense for the application. I had my Glock done simply for the looks. It was the 90's and the two-tone look was all the rage, lol.
 
Just a warning, not even hard chrome will survive constant contact with your skin. The sweat, oils, and other body fluids will eat any metal finish right off a gun, in a matter of weeks, if not days.

WTTW...
 
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