mikev49 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I have two 1911s, both currently in blued finish. I want to get some work done on the gun I shoot for competitions and need/ would like, to get the other refinished beacause i dont shoot it as much anymore and want to prevent it from rusting. I would like to know what everyone considers the best finish for competition and also for storage/ carry if a different finish is recommended. I would have loved to find someone to failzero the second gun but they only sell kits now so Im guessing that is out of the question. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JxMAN25 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 i really like the sergical crome. i think that the ceramic coating stuff is a good one aswell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob DuBois Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Something I have found that brings out the color in a blued gun is Mink Oil, I purchased mine at Red Wing as I pass their store and it's easy to get in and out. I'm sure other brands will work. Rub it down with the corner of a terry cloth rag then wipe the excess off. As with any firearm you'll need to check it once in a while in storage and wipe it down after shooting. If your going to draw the gun a lot, I like hardcrome finish. It just holds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EkuJustice Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 i like the aranite on my carry gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 The 2 most durable finishes are DLC coating.... similar to powdercoat, but very thin and much harder and hard chrome, which is an industrial (not bling) chrome that has a very similar hardness as DLC. Both are great, buyers choice....... they are both excellent for carry or comp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 +1 for hardchrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
818-DVC Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 DLC, PVD, melanite, blue cobalt, hard chrome. The only problem with Hard Chrome is hydrogen embrittlement on small parts, leading them to crack, as the metalurgy has changed. My next gun will be melanite. It's cheap and has similar rockwell hardness of hard chrome. My first hard chromed gun had EVERYTHING chromed. First the link cracked. Then the AFTEC claw snapped. Then the FP stop cracked in 2. Then I snapped a thumb safety off. Ever since then I just get my frame & slide done and it's reasonably cheap, scratch resistant and the slide to frame rolls like glass bearings. I'm not that into the bling of metallic guns, so black melanite or PVD would be my next choice. Hard chrome doesn't have to be polished shiny. It can come bedd blasted to put a nice sheen on it and not look chrome plated, but have a nice uniform matte metallic finish. PVD is neat stuff, but they take forever to do our guns. $400 and 2-4 months wait is really a lot of down time and a bit of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 +1 more for hardchrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 What kind of round count are you seeing hard chromed parts fail? I've got 30k+ on my first hard chromed 2011 without a single failure of any sort... and EVERYTHING is chromed. Hammer, sear, pins, screws, everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I do agree with NOT chroming the small internal parts, but not because of complete failures ..... simply because you can't get as good of a trigger job on a hard-chromed sear nose. Also extractors are more prone to loosen on you after hard-chrome. And finally I think of all the internal parts as being "consumables". Meaning I'll probably replace many of those parts (extractor, fps, sear, etc) after a number of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I had all of the parts of my 2011 Ionbonded, and now the trigger is very gummy. If I had it to do over again, it would only be the visible parts. If I had it to do over again, I would also chose hardchrome over ionbond. I like the black look, but the ionbond feels gummy to me compared to hardchrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I do agree with NOT chroming the small internal parts, but not because of complete failures ..... simply because you can't get as good of a trigger job on a hard-chromed sear nose. Also extractors are more prone to loosen on you after hard-chrome. And finally I think of all the internal parts as being "consumables". Meaning I'll probably replace many of those parts (extractor, fps, sear, etc) after a number of years. Why not? If the geometry is set prior to hard chrome such that it takes the chrome into account, the net result would be the same, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twodownzero Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I did my guns in moly resin. It's pretty tough for an applied/baked finish and I like the fact that I can re-do it as I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hello: I like hardchrome for everything except the sear,hammer,disconnector,firing pin,firing pin stop and extractor. I have a slide that was Ion Bonded and it is starting to wear through on the underside of the slide rails. Next pistols will be all hard chromed again Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I do agree with NOT chroming the small internal parts, but not because of complete failures ..... simply because you can't get as good of a trigger job on a hard-chromed sear nose. Also extractors are more prone to loosen on you after hard-chrome. And finally I think of all the internal parts as being "consumables". Meaning I'll probably replace many of those parts (extractor, fps, sear, etc) after a number of years. Why not? If the geometry is set prior to hard chrome such that it takes the chrome into account, the net result would be the same, no? No. And that's with Tripp doing the hard-chrome on my open gun. We finally replaced the sear, and everything was great again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikev49 Posted November 11, 2010 Author Share Posted November 11, 2010 alright, so the general consensus is to have the gun hard cromed. Now here comes the loaded question. who do i get to do it? I live in Virginia, and would like to not have to ship the gun, but I understand that I may have to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 (edited) Chris, What I was getting at was that if the sear/ hammer is setup FOR hardchrome, then the hardchrome doesn't negatively change the geometry. Basically cutting parts so that they mate precisely post chrome. Mike, The gun NEEDS to travel for a proper trigger job and finish. There is not a single 'gunsmith' in the Richmond area I'd hand a gun to. There are some smiths outside of Richmond, but you're either shipping or driving --- Come shoot the Steel Match at Black Creek on Saturday. You can try out my Tripp customs and see hardchrome for yourself. S. Edited November 11, 2010 by Seth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Seth, I get what you're saying now, and no we did not do that. But my point is why bother? Just hard-chrome what NEEDS hard-chrome, and you're not really out anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
818-DVC Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I bought a used Eagle that was stock except for a trigger job with C&S trigger/hammer parts, magwell, and FO front. The seller said there was just 5-7k through it. He said he just got the barrel, link, safeties, magwell and frame slide hard chromed After 4000 rds or so. The gun was tight, and the fit was pretty good. Nice 2-3lb trigger nothing was loose on the gun. The ambi safety was TIGHT. Too tight. After my first 1000 rds through the gun, the link broke. My gun was a single shot after that. I took it to my local smith and he changed the link/pin out and told me to never HC small parts, and pointed to the obvious parts. I go back to the range. Load up the mags. drop 1 in the gun. Rack the slide, Engage thumb safety, drop mag & load 1 more into the mag. Seat it, and holster. I turn on my CED, strap it. Hit the button waited for the beep, drew the gun and literally dropped the safety. On the ground.. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point, and decided to clear & unload. The other side of the safety falls out. Now I'm pissed. I load everything up & head to my smith. No home. Call him, meets me down at his shop. Hand him the peices. He sighs "oh boy.." he tears the fire control parts out, and mentions the FP stop is cracking. He replaces the STI safety with a Wilson he had, fits and replaces my FP stop with an EGW looked at the extractor and said it was hard chromed too. I didn't have a replacement, and couldn't afford to buy one & pay him to do something I could do. I go back to the range the next day and the gun is running pretty darn good. I do a lew drills and start function firing though 3 mags at the berm. Open show clear. Holster. Everything seems to be fine. Not a hiccup with the mags that came w the gun or my new tuned mags. It was ready to race! Then halfway through my first match my barrel hood is closing on my brass. 3 single shots and clearing the breech each time. I got the instruction to Cease fire, unload and show clear. The RO looks at my gun and there's a jagged peice of steel where the hook was ripped off from the bar. I had my glock so I finished the match very poorly. Shot my classifier at 69%.. I then ordered 2 aftecs and I fitted both of them and kept 1 in my range bag. The gun was running so I sold it! The new owner is very happy and I'm out $500 in a very valuable lesson about hardchroming small parts. The end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 alright, so the general consensus is to have the gun hard cromed. Now here comes the loaded question. who do i get to do it? I live in Virginia, and would like to not have to ship the gun, but I understand that I may have to. I've heard lots of good things about Accurate Plating. I haven't used them yet, but I will for the guns I am currently building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I had Tripp chrome my open gun, and I had APW chrome my Limited gun. Both turned out to be beautiful works of art. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Honestly, while its a good anecdotal story, I would be looking at the original fit of the parts instead of the chrome. Considering that I'm pretty much a Tripp Research fanboy with 2 Tripp built customs, I'm biased. But I'm extremely anal and did my homework prior to commissioning both guns. I am convinced that there are a few smiths as good, but none better. With a tick over 30k rounds on the 5" gun and 3k on the 6" gun and not a single broken part, failure to feed, extract, go bang, or anything else, I'm more convinced that some of the "gunsmiths" out there are just dremel jockeys. I'd bet a big fat craft beer that the chrome didn't break the thumb safety that was 'TIGHT. Too tight.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
818-DVC Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I put in for a quote in a while ago on SVI gunbuilder. I requested for a matte blasted hardchrome finish because I was waiting for people to put 100k through a DLC or ionbond pvd before being a paying beta tester. Brandon got back to me regards to my build. He told me that they don't hardchrome anymore due to guess what... HYDROGEN EMBRITTLEMENT to their frames & slides! He recommended DLC. Wait time 1 year. $3500 blued, or $4000 DLC.. I'm not getting talked out of hard chrome or cobalt ever again. I have heard great things about melanite and wouldn't mind applying it to gun to protect it during break in before hard chrome, I'm just not totally sold on ceramic finishes outlasting hard chrome yet & only time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I like a black gun don't care for the silver chrome gun so I will be having Bobby at FGW put on the Atranite check it out http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=108268&st=0&p=1240909&hl=atranite&fromsearch=1entry1240909 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
818-DVC Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 The safety was too tight because of the hardchrome applied on the fitted safety by STI. I'll bet you a six pack Of tall boys that the safety wasn't as tight or brittle until it was hardchromed. If tripp built my gun & hardchromed it, I bet he would of used better parts, fitted them perfectly & would of hardchromed the slide & frame only. I don't even know who plated this gun! Honestly, while its a good anecdotal story, I would be looking at the original fit of the parts instead of the chrome. Considering that I'm pretty much a Tripp Research fanboy with 2 Tripp built customs, I'm biased. But I'm extremely anal and did my homework prior to commissioning both guns. I am convinced that there are a few smiths as good, but none better. With a tick over 30k rounds on the 5" gun and 3k on the 6" gun and not a single broken part, failure to feed, extract, go bang, or anything else, I'm more convinced that some of the "gunsmiths" out there are just dremel jockeys. I'd bet a big fat craft beer that the chrome didn't break the thumb safety that was 'TIGHT. Too tight.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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