asiparks
Member
I'm not a fan of silver guns, so I had my stainless DW CBOB melonited about 14 months ago. It's been my daily carry since then, gotten through 10,000 assorted rounds been tossed around, dropped and generally been made to feel unloved.
the before:
the after:
I chose a melonite finish as I'd not been impressed with ceramic coatings, although my personal experience was limited to kimber's Kimpro, (though I now also have a Black T finish Colt, too new to tell how that's doing...).
Melonite was supposed to be the hardest wearing finish available and as it is a surface treatment, rather than a coating, I hoped it wouldn't alter any of the tight tolerances on my rather well fitted CBOB.
General observations- the finish looks deep satin black after oiling, fades to a very dark charcoal after a while. Re-oiling re-blackens it nicely.
I tried to scratch it in a few discreet places with a knife when i first got it. The knife left a bright silver mark in the finish !! I cursed, rubbed it with an oily cloth and it disappeared ! The silver mark was from the melonite wearing down the tip of the knife....
The finish doesn't appear to have the in-built lubricant properties of some of the ceramic coatings, but it does seem to hold onto oils quite well. I got through 880 rounds ,in one 2 1/2 hour session with no cleaning or re application of lube before I started to get failure-to-return-to-battery stoppages. My supicion is that was more due to carbon fouling than the gun being dry, but I can't say with certainty. Cean up us very easy though as powder residue and carbon just wipes off with an oily rag.
so after 10,000 rounds:
Shows no obvious wear on the rails, the shine at the end is just oil, but there's what looks like wear from the disconnector along the bottom of the firing pin tunnel.
no wear on inner slide rails at all....
another shot of the frame rails- no wear !
a bit of oil on a brass brush- the mark on the underside of the firing pin tunnel is gone....hmm wonder if this will wear down my dissconector ?
no wear on or around the grip safety ( just oil and a bit of dirt along the edge near the frame...
Other notes- the mattness or shine of the melonite depends very much on the underlying metal prep work, much like blueing. The slide and frame rails and feedramp were highly polished, the rest of the gun was left brushed. After meloniting, the polished parts remain shiny, the brushing texture is still visible. The hammer and firing pin stop have a black oxide rather than melonite finish. Apparently the high temperatures used in the process can make some smaller parts brittle.
All in all, I'm very impressed with this finish, cost is about the same as a coating, but I believe it looks and wears far, far better.
Cheers !
the before:
the after:
I chose a melonite finish as I'd not been impressed with ceramic coatings, although my personal experience was limited to kimber's Kimpro, (though I now also have a Black T finish Colt, too new to tell how that's doing...).
Melonite was supposed to be the hardest wearing finish available and as it is a surface treatment, rather than a coating, I hoped it wouldn't alter any of the tight tolerances on my rather well fitted CBOB.
General observations- the finish looks deep satin black after oiling, fades to a very dark charcoal after a while. Re-oiling re-blackens it nicely.
I tried to scratch it in a few discreet places with a knife when i first got it. The knife left a bright silver mark in the finish !! I cursed, rubbed it with an oily cloth and it disappeared ! The silver mark was from the melonite wearing down the tip of the knife....
The finish doesn't appear to have the in-built lubricant properties of some of the ceramic coatings, but it does seem to hold onto oils quite well. I got through 880 rounds ,in one 2 1/2 hour session with no cleaning or re application of lube before I started to get failure-to-return-to-battery stoppages. My supicion is that was more due to carbon fouling than the gun being dry, but I can't say with certainty. Cean up us very easy though as powder residue and carbon just wipes off with an oily rag.
so after 10,000 rounds:
Shows no obvious wear on the rails, the shine at the end is just oil, but there's what looks like wear from the disconnector along the bottom of the firing pin tunnel.
no wear on inner slide rails at all....
another shot of the frame rails- no wear !
a bit of oil on a brass brush- the mark on the underside of the firing pin tunnel is gone....hmm wonder if this will wear down my dissconector ?
no wear on or around the grip safety ( just oil and a bit of dirt along the edge near the frame...
Other notes- the mattness or shine of the melonite depends very much on the underlying metal prep work, much like blueing. The slide and frame rails and feedramp were highly polished, the rest of the gun was left brushed. After meloniting, the polished parts remain shiny, the brushing texture is still visible. The hammer and firing pin stop have a black oxide rather than melonite finish. Apparently the high temperatures used in the process can make some smaller parts brittle.
All in all, I'm very impressed with this finish, cost is about the same as a coating, but I believe it looks and wears far, far better.
Cheers !
