Carbon Steel vs Stainless Steel

[Bridge]

Other than weight, corrosion resistance, esthetics and cost, is there any differences in shooting or handling characteristics between a handgun manufactured in carbon steel and the same one made in stainless?

 

[rcmodel]

No.

And weight is pretty much the same.
Steel is steel, regardless of which kind it is.

When stainless guns first came out, there were a few problems.
Slide galling on auto's if improperly lubed.
And the DA triggers on revolvers always felt less smooth to me.

Anymore, there is no difference at all.

Stainless does show tiny surface scratches more then blued guns.
But it is pretty easy to polish them out if it bothers you.
Can't do that with bluing.

rc

 

[CraigC]

That sums it up.

 

[brickeyee]

Slide galling on auto's if improperly lubed.

More related to using the same alloy for frame and slide.

By using slightly different alloys galling has been eliminated.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

That sums it up.

Yup.

Plus some folks think Stainless is easier to clean, which is not true. The ability for metal to hold onto dirt is more a function of the surface finish than the material itself.

 

[moxie]

And a properly maintained blued gun resists corrosion just fine.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

S&W for a long time returned to carbon steel hammers and triggers on their stainless guns, although hard chrome plated, because they withstood wear longer than comparable parts made of stainless steel. I do not know if they still do this.

 

[BYJO4]

There is no difference in performance. I prefer stainless both for the looks and it is easier to keep looking like new.

 

[eldon519]

I like the finish wear/patina a well-used blued handgun gets. Especially on my single-actions. Just seems right.

 

[Jim K]

S&W had always color case hardened their hammers and triggers, and even trademarked that feature. The combination of a very hard surface with a softer interior gave an excellent combination of wear resistance without brittleness. They continued that with stainless steel hammers but the appearance was not so good and they went to flash chroming those parts in SS guns. But MIM is hard all the way through and also has a very high resistance to deformation from impact, so they now use a form of coloring only to maintain the trademarked appearance.

Jim

 

[back40]

it could be all in my head, but occasionally, blued guns feel slicker than stainless. i find this in both sixguns and bolt guns. sometimes i think it may be due to the extra polishing that high quality blued guns get versus brushed stainless. other times i think i'm just losing it.

 

[gbw]

Stainless is for lazy folks like me who like to the shoot guns but have no ambition to clean them. (I do it eventually).

I own too many of both in revolver & autos and rifles. Stainless is far more forgiving of neglect and abuse and so is what I pick up most often to shoot.

The blued guns are beautiful and often marginally smoother / tighter, but they rust or mar very easy and it's hard to do anything about it. Stainless is less likely to damage and easier to correct if it is.

 

[38riverrat]

S&W for a long time returned to carbon steel hammers and triggers on their stainless guns, although hard chrome plated, because they withstood wear longer than comparable parts made of stainless steel. I do not know if they still do this.

They are all MIM these days. Totally different.
Some of the PC revolvers may be an exception.

Best,
Rick

 

[Bridge]

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like the only real difference is that stainless, not surprisingly, is easier to clean and maintain. I wondered about this because Sig recently began making the legendary p210 in stainless and I wasn't sure why. To me the original in Nitron coated carbon steel just somehow seemed cooler and more authentic. Once it's produced in stainless, it's just another (albeit excellent) pistol.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I don't getting wrapped around the axle cleaning blue guns either. You can't see the soot. My shooter blue Pythons haven't really been cleaned in over a year. I just wipe them down with an oily rag and stick them back in the case.

 

[F-111 John]

I wouldn't say that Stainless is easier to clean and maintain. I have a S&W Model 60 and a Dan Wesson Model 715, and it's an hour long finger crimping job to rid these two of burn rings and other burn marks after a range session.

My blued S&W Model 19 doesn't show the burn marks very much, so I don't use the Birchwood Casey Lead Remover and Polishing Cloth on it for fear of removing the blueing. As a result it is cleaned up in no time.

Owning a Stainless revolver is like driving a white car and living at the end of a dirt road. You either live with it looking dirty all the time, or you spend your entire life keeping it clean.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

MIM manufactured parts. Are they stainless, or plated carbon steel?

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Sounds like the only real difference is that stainless, not surprisingly, is easier to clean and maintain.

Howdy Again

Read my earlier post again. Stainless is not easier to clean than blued steel. That is a myth. What matters is how polished or unpolished the surface is. The more highly polished the surface is, the less 'tooth' there is for fouling to cling to. A matte finish will always be more difficult to clean than a mirror polished surface, regardless of what the metal is. All other things being equal, you use the same amount of elbow grease cleaning a blued surface or a stainless surface, as long as they both have the same surface finish.

A blued surface does tend to mask fouling and dirt that a stainless surface will tend to highlight. Regarding carbon rings on the front face of a revolver cylinder, it is the same story. A matte finished stainless gun will make the rings more difficult to scrub away than a highly polished blue surface, plus the stainless finish will reveal every spec of carbon that has not been removed.

As a side note, once you have enough revolvers, you will stop trying to scrub off carbon rings on the front surface of the cylinder. Wasted effort.

 

[Bridge]

Thanks for the clarification about cleaning. It seems as though the only real difference between a stainless and a carbon steel gun is esthetic, not functional. Which makes coating a stainless gun with a chemical that makes it black seem nonsensical, especially because the internal components are still more subject to corrosion than the stainless exterior. I like the look of stainless on some guns but not on traditional ones that achieved fame in their carbon steel iteration. I also like the fact that the carbon steel guns are generally cheaper.

 

[F-111 John]

As a side note, once you have enough revolvers, you will stop trying to scrub off carbon rings on the front surface of the cylinder. Wasted effort.

Then we know how often you wash your white car!

 

[CraigC]

I don't find stainless steel easier to clean. If anything, the brushed finish on most stainless guns makes it more difficult to get them clean. Hard chrome, however, really is A LOT easier to clean than blued or stainless.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

I tend to agree. Hard chrome is the easiest, Nickle is second, Blued is third and stainless is hardest to really get clean. Stainless is what the ultrasonic is made for.

For me, the stainless vs. blued comes down to psychology. In my mind, stainless is a tool, blued steel is art.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Again, it is surface finish, not the metal. I have a couple of highly polished Stainless Vaqueros. The fouling melts right off of them as easily as it does off of polished blued steel. I have a few matte finished Smiths, they require some more scrubbing.

I would never buy a white car, and I say again, after you have a few dozen revolvers, you stop worrying about carbon rings on the face of the cylinder.

 

[Stress_Test]

I would never buy a white car, and I say again, after you have a few dozen revolvers, you stop worrying about carbon rings on the face of the cylinder.

Ditto. My philosophy, if it doesn't come off during the regular scrub and wipe-down, it can stay on there!

Though I will mention that Ballistol did a surprisingly good job of getting stuff off of the hard-to-clean areas like the ejector star and teeth, the first time I tried it.

 

[bc1023]

I'm not a big fan of stainless, especially for tight fitting guns. There's a reason why the most accurate 1911s are carbon steel.

Les Baer, for instance, won't even offer their best accuracy guarantee with a stainless gun.

I thinking a nice blued carbon steel gun looks a heck of a lot nicer as well.