Best coating on a duty 1911

at home parkerize, and ignore it. Setup to parkerize is around $100 for a 1911. Decent oil, and the wear wont matter.

Sounds like cerakote is the quick answer

Short term answer-DIY Cerakote.

Long term answer-Hard Chrome Plating, the most durable finish I know of. My Beretta Model 70S was done close to 40 years ago by Ron Mahovsky of Metalife and has seen constant use and considerable holster time over all these years. Still looks as good as the day I got it back from them.

Ill second the hard chrome. I carried this Colt Commander on a daily basis for a little over 10 years in a Blade Tech kydex IWB holster. The only real wear on it was a couple of polished spots on the slide and trigger guard from where the holster contacted the gun, and some very light rust freckles around the grips.

Prior to having it hard chromed, it was a pretty Colt blue, that lasted less than a year in a Galco Royal Guard before it had some major rust issues.



I used to parkerize a lot of things with a buddy of mine. If you're set up to do it, its a fairly cheap and decent finish, especially as a base for a good base for a proper paint. If you're only doing one gun, and/or youre not comfortable with totally stripping the gun down to its smallest parts and reassembling it, you're better off just sending it off to have it done, as you'll have probably have more tied up in "stuff" to do it, than what it'll cost to just pay someone else to do it.

Three days? If you don't have a local shop that will put your gun in the plating bath, Parkerizing tank, or spray booth on priority - Are you LE to get the priority some shops give for duty weapons? - you are down to DIY.

The Old Solution was Turtle Wax. Just wax your gun like you wax your car.

I haven’t seen any coating that beats naked stainless steel myself.

Once your through to the metal, on a coated surface, you are no longer looking at the same material.

I was going to recommend Cerakote for your handgun and then I found this from a 1911 forum.
https://www.1911forum.com/threads/cerakote-wear-over-time.746417/
I would read it through. Some interesting stuff.

I have Cerakote on two long guns. Works just fine BUT totally different environment for rifles. No holster in and out daily for one thing.

I have a cheap suggestion. Silicone gun cloth rub down every night. Cheap and quick and the cloth will last a while and your gun carries bitchin’ wear from use.

Pat Riot said:

I was going to recommend Cerakote for your handgun and then I found this from a 1911 forum.

I would read it through. Some interesting stuff.

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Especially considering the heavyweights posting in that thread

Evolution Armory https://www.evolutionarmory.com

pistolwrench/Rogers Precision (note all the Cerakote he shows on his website) http://www.rogersprecision.com

Chris James/Combat Precision http://www.combatprecision.com/about1

lsbbigdog/Business End Customs https://www.businessendcustoms.com

Alchemy Custom https://alchemy1911.com

IlikeSA said:

It needs to be something I can drop off and pick up, because I have at most 3 days off in a row.

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Like Jim Watson said, unless you're doing it yourself, 3 days is a pretty small window.

It sounds like something you may want to schedule for a vacation window.

jmorris said:

I haven’t seen any coating that beats naked stainless steel myself.

Once your through to the metal, on a coated surface, you are no longer looking at the same material.

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Maybe that's why so manty mfr's have gone to stainless. Just a guess. If you brush it, it doesn't even scratch. The ultimate non-finish, finish. Imagine that.

Three days is not much time. Cerakote or Parkerize is about it for choices.

My favorite finish is NP3, but alas, it is no longer available. This Combat Commander has it and it is tough as nails, plus has high lubricity on its own with the embedded teflon.

CoalTrain49 said:

Maybe that's why so manty mfr's have gone to stainless. Just a guess. If you brush it, it doesn't even scratch. The ultimate non-finish, finish. Imagine that.

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All the SS guns I have or have had, have had a pretty fragile finish when it comes to handling and wear and tear, and are/were easily scratched/damaged. I actually got a number of them used, for pretty cheap just because of that. Having access to a bead blast cabinet usually cleans them right up, assuming you like a "matte" finish, polished is a bit more work.

Matte actually seems to show the scratches quicker, as the scratch is usually "bright" in comparison to the matte. In a pinch, the grey Scotchbrite pads can touch things up too, and matches S&W's matte finish pretty well.

A lot of people should not be allowed access to a flat bladed screwdriver.

SS also rusts if exposed to sweat and not regularly maintained. Its not near as bad as blued, parked guns, but it does rust, and especially in places like under grips, levers, etc, or up close to them. You really need to keep after it, just like anything else.

I picked this Colt up off someone at work going through a divorce for $200. It had bright polished "flats" and matte on the tops of the slide, front strap, etc. It was pretty beat up and pretty heavily scratched all over. I stripped it down and went over it a couple of times in the blast cabinet using glass beads, put a new pair of grips, and it came out like this. Wish I had a "before" pic, as the difference in what it looked like before was stark.

I have military grade corrosive sweat. All my stainless revolvers (that I carry against my body) have rust under the grips. Once a year or so, I scrub the rust off with oil and a bronze brush.

Hard chrome, unless the finish is compromised, is incredibly durable.

The Glock tennifer finish is awesome.

But, a few wear marks on the high points looks cool.

Keep a little oil on it, drive on.

The new elite series from Cerakote is the way to go. It is extremely hard to scratch. I had a roll pin punch jump of a pin hammering it in and I was afraid to look. Not a mark.

Here is Hilton Yam with a 10-8 Performance video on 1911 finishes

Stainless. I don't care about scratches on a working gun.

A stainless S&W 65 police trade in revolver I bought was pretty scratched.up.

I found out a 3M gray Scotch-Brite pad matched the finish of the revolver well. A little time with the pad and it looks like new again.

HARD CHROME

Ionbond DLC

I'd just wipe it down with oil every now and then and not fret over the worn spots.

Oil, of course.

Hard chrome. SS is great, if your gun was born that way. Not really an option if it wasn't. The trouble with chrome is price, in many cases. The EPA doesn't like the heavy metal waste products and chroming shops have to adhere to a multitude of regulations for them. Regulations equal more cost which they pass on to you. Stick to shops that know what they are doing. Don't send it to anyone who doesn't have experience with pistols. Chroming, unlike bluing, adds thickness to the part. It may take a bit of JBs compound in the right spot to get the thing back together. When I worked for Les, we would intentionally loosen up the frame to slide fit before we sent it off to chrome. Not much, just a tiny bit. It usually came back with a perfect fit.

Chrome is also impervious to all cleaners and just about anything else. I have accidentally dripped some battery acid an a chromed slide. That's a pretty high concentration of Sulfuric acid. It had no effect. There are chemicals that will strip chrome, but you are unlikely to run into any of them. Chromium is a group 6 metal on the periodic table and is the hardest elemental metal. Tungsten? That is quite soft in its elemental form, until you add Carbide to it. But then it is no longer an element.

Anyway, chromium is a very durable finish that I highly recommend.

IlikeSA said:

I've been running the same 1911 with parkerizing on it for nearly 6 years and am getting multiple spots where bare metal is shining through. I use a kydex holster.

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Maybe get a holster thats a little more friendly to the finish of your gun. A little wear wouldn't bother me anyway. I like the look a tool has when it has real wear from use. Not that fake "distressed" look some have done to a new guitar to make it look like its been there and done that but real wear from use. Maybe you can post a picture of your gun. Maybe someone can suggest a way to heat and adjust your Kydex holster so its not wearing so much in certain places.