To Blue, or Cerakote?

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AirmanRatliff

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Hello all, I have a bit of a question. I have a beautiful Beretta 84bb, and I love the gun to death. Unfortunately, a previous owner somewhere along the line either didn't, or just didn't understand cleaning and maintenance of a firearm. When it came to me, I had to do a bit of work. New grips, a new spring or two, etc. Also, the blueing of the barrel is almost non existant due to wear, and there is some less serious wear on the frame, which I lubricate to prevent getting worse. I'm weighing options on what to do with the barrell, have it reblued, or cerakoted. Anyone have experience with both? Pros, cons?
 
AirmanRatliff

If it were me (and I dearly loved my Beretta Model 84 when I had it), I would consider getting the whole gun refinished. It would just look a whole lot better than trying to touch up the barrel and any other wear spots on the slide and frame. My personal preference is hard chrome plating done by Ron Mahovsky at Metalife. It can be applied to both steel and aluminum (after a layer of electroless nickel has been applied), and will last for a very long time. It has a surface hardness of 71 on the Rockwell C Scale and will still look great after many years of use. The price for doing the entire gun is $170.

Another way to go might be Robar's NP3 Plus finish which is very corrosion and abrasion resistant though not as hard of a surface finish as hard chrome plating. It is also a self-lubricating finish which makes the gun easier to clean and cuts down on friction wear. It can be applied to steel and aluminum. A complete NP3 Plus finish on your gun would run $415, slide and barrel only would be $220 while the frame by itself would be $199.

There is Cerakote which is a polymer ceramic based coating that can be applied to just about anything and has abrasion/corrosion/wear resistance and a certain amount of surface hardness. Some prices to have it done by a certified Cerakote applicator might cost around $150 for one color and another $50 to $100 to have the gun disassembled for the process. Slide or frame only can be done for $65 and barrel only for $50. You can also order all of this online if you wanted to try to refinish your gun yourself.

One of the least durable finishes you could get after these three would be bluing and anodizing. One of the best in the business is Ford's Guns. Their prices range from $90 to $130 for the slide, another $70 to $100 for the barrel, and $50 to $170 to have the frame anodized.
 
Bannockburn - thank you for your in depth reply. I'll weigh what you've said, and consider my options. I'm really only looking to do the barrel, and want to preserve the finish on the rest of the gun.
 
I think that depends on whether the gun has any collectible value or is in demand on the used market. I don't know anything about Berettas or the demand for older ones, so I can't comment on your particular gun. But let's say I had an old Python or Hi Power that absolutely needed to be refinished, I would try to replicate the factory finish as much as possible.

But let's say it were just an old Colt 1911 with no discernible heritage, a very nice gun no doubt but not collectible in any way, I would definitely have it cerakoted. It's around the same price, and it's a far superior finish in all respects. Much, much higher wear and corrosion resistance, and it also has a higher lubricity if I remember correctly.

As already stated, though, hard chrome or NP3 might be your best bet. You would just disassemble the gun yourself and send whatever parts you wanted coated to them. However, the nice thing about cerakote is that you could do it yourself fairly cheap, comparatively. A single color would cost you around 50 in paint, then all you need is an air gun and an old toaster oven. That also saves you the hassle of sending a receiver through the mail.

Another factor, though, is if this is a looker or a shooter. Is it something you're actually going to carry, or is it more of a BBQ gun? Whatever you choose, I would do the whole gun. It sounds like you've got bare metal on the slide and frame, which would be more of an issue than barrel wear.
 
Sticking just to bluing or cerakoting:

Bluing can be pretty. I have been told that a good bluing job and propper maintenance will serve a gun well. But my experience has been that blued guns are either expensive safe queens or they rust much more readily than other finishes. YMMV. I had an Winchester 94 that would rust if you mentioned water or moisture around it. Bluing is essentially coating the gun in one kind of rust to prevent another kind of rust.

I've never used Cerakote, but some people I know seem to think it was invented by Jesus and that God uses it to finish His guns. I have also heard that it is a good DIY option.
 
The pistol is one I shoot quite often, to be honest. It's the gun I use in my boat, wheeler, and sometimes bike(just because it fits in the storage of all of them). But I also take a lot of pride in my small firearms collection, and keeping them in good shape. Especially considering I have yet to buy a gun younger than me, and they are all as clean as can be. Of course, I do have a lot of time on my hands.
 
Blue it, Cerakote can wear off due to the movement of the slide. Cerakote is only supposed to be a couple of thousandths of an inch thick but if the clearance between moving parts is tighter than that then you can have functioning problems.
 
AirmanRatliff

I think for the money and for the durability of the finish itself, hard chrome plating is, literally speaking, tough to beat. I had my Beretta Model 70S done by Metalife over 20 years ago. There was a problem with the original bluing and Beretta reblued it under warranty. But there were still problems with the reblued finish and I wanted something that was going to last. Heard about Metalife and their SS Chromium finish and decided to give it a try. Besides being such a hard, durable finish it also was cheaper than getting the gun reblued!

My Beretta is my take everywhere gun; to the range, hiking, camping, and when it's not being used by me, one of my kids are shooting it. In fact I had to buy them their own .22s just so I could get it back! And after all these years is still looks as good as the day I got it back from being plated.

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