Best Finish In Your Opinion

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finalcut

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Thinking of having my Wilson & XDs re-finished this winter. Looking for:
1- Super - exta tough and long lasting
2- Nice to look at is second priority
What are your favorite finish options???

Some picts / links would be great...
 
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blaze orange krylon :neener:

i would assume nickel plating would be best. might as well buy a new gun though.
 
Prettiest: Matte Stainless Steel
Most robust: Tennifer

Although matte stainless is robust too, I'm differentiating between display guns and "working" guns (working meaning to be used for their intended purpose).
 
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Hard chrome - It is more wear resistant than tennifer - But, let me explain. Tennifer is damn hard - but it always has a black, carbon type coating. That will wear off fairly easily. I've worn the black finish off of Glocks in 6 months using a leather holster.

After over a year with my hard chromed slide on my P99c, not a mark yet. Hard chrome is the most scratch resistant finish.

NP3 is probably the most corrosion resistant finish.
 
Since one cannot get Tennifer because Glock Inc. doesn't offer refinish services for other brands of handguns I am going to also recommend a satin hard chrome finish.
There are some refinishers offering matte black hard chrome too, very nice.
I still like a good parkarizing job, Texas Armament is best at this, recommended and used by me.
Avoid 'Duracoat' ','matte sandblast moly' or anything involving spraypaint.
 
Hard chrome is hard to beat. Had my Kimber Series I frame hard chromed about 12 years ago and it still looks like new. Highly corrosion resistant as well.
 
U actually can get tennifer done aftermarket. Some guys on the 1911 site have done it. Some places do it for tools, and are willing to do a gun. But, I'd stick with hard chrome.
 
Hard chrome will be about the toughest, although with rough use it can show scratches. Matte hard chrome holds it looks longer.
 
I like stainless, but stainless steel isn't a finish...if we're talking finishes, I like the tennifer from Glock & the NP3 stuff too.
 
You want long lasting?

Walter Birdsong's Black-T finish is top notch.
Click to expand...

Uh, no, not really. It is very soft and scratches easily. I have it on the slide of one of my 1911's. Not even close to hard chrome. Looks good though.
 
Another vote for hard chrome. Long lasting, doesn't show any wear, and looks like stainless steel.
 
black chrome is very easy to damage. It is not the same as hard chrome.

As for Roguard - I've been told by many people with it that it is not that durable at all. NP3 is more durable, but that will wear too.

Hard chrome is the strongest U can do to prevent visible wear.
 
I hard Chromed

one of my P7s... guess which one I carry.... Yep, the Hard Chromed one. The sweat wipes off, and it just looks darned good nestled in the black sharkskin.
 
I had a Springfield Champion with a Roguarded slide and an NP3 frame and internals.

The slide and everything else coated by Roguard is back at Robar being NP3d.

Roguard was pretty tough for a heat cured paint, but it doesn't bond to the base metal like the NP3 does.

I really like the wear characteristics of NP3. Sure it's not as tough as hard chrome, but it is way more subdued and way better looking in my opinion.

A few character marks never hurt anything.
 
Tenifer is grey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenifer

The black color is a parkerized coating, which is most likely what is wearing off.

Tenifer as applied is 64 Rockwell C scale hardness. I can't find info on hard chrome, but I really doubt it's up to 64 HRC.

edit: Just found it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_chrome
"Typically for engineering purposes the hardness value will be between 800 - 1000 HV500 when subject to a Vickers hardness test."

That translates to between 60-66 HRC, which sounds pretty even-steven to me. Of course, that's for engineering purposes, so I have no idea what it would be in a real world application.
 
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