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Blue vs. Stainless/Chrome


dbagwell

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The biggest reason I like chrome is for wearing of parts, The chrome on chrome is slick and the fit last longer. Cleanse up fast too. And Looks cool.

personally I have gotten more glare off of blue metal than chrome

+1

A well fit gun with chrome done by a good applicator will last for a Long time and remain tight. Polish the flats and bead blast the top of the slide and you are good to go.

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The biggest reason I like chrome is for wearing of parts, The chrome on chrome is slick and the fit last longer. Cleanse up fast too. And Looks cool.

personally I have gotten more glare off of blue metal than chrome

+1

A well fit gun with chrome done by a good applicator will last for a Long time and remain tight. Polish the flats and bead blast the top of the slide and you are good to go.

+2

Chrome is the only way to go, won't touch stainless with a stick and blue as pretty as it is just doesn't hold up long term.

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Seth, if the chrome isn't soft you have to get pretty ape to scratch it with anything more than TINY scratches. It is almost as hard as woodpecker lips, slightly harder than wedding tackle at 17, and hard to hurt. Hairline scratches are going to happen with table starts and things like that, but big scratches require effort.

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Wedding ring, slide stop, table starts all seem to leave there little micro scratches. I suppose if I stopped treating it like a power tool and love it gently I wouldn't have this problem, but where's the fun in that?

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Little drift but the Ion-Bond is rocking my world...harder than chrome and is a dull finish which is "Spose" to hold lube better. I have no problem with scratches yet but maybe someday:-)

I have one pistol with chrome and IB mix...great for Bling! Picture: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...0&start=300

Look tward the bottom of the page.

Just another option...we all love options right?

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The hard chrome on my Witness is still nearly perfect after a good break in of 4k rounds and lots of draws and a drop in the dirt. My Single stack 1991A1 is parked, has fewer rounds, fewer draws and looks like its been to war. Got a couple little scratches in the hard chrome (slide stop too), but its a power tool, not a museum piece.

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I love the chrome on my 1911. It was done with a matte and brushed combo by Virgil Tripp. No scratches, even small ones.

My Witness (Tanfoglio Gold Team) has a polished chrome finish, and it seems to show the scratches and wear marks as described above. I will always choose the matte and/or brushed finish with chrome.

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Do any of you experienced shooters have a preference for shooting a blued vs. stainless or chromed pistols? Just wondering if this has any impact on glare, sight picture, etc?

I really like the chrome/stainless finish, for the looks factor and clean up factor. But I noticed the last season or two, I was shooting my blued/parkerized 1911's just a fuzz better than my stainless 1911. I figured the stainless finish was distracting me just a bit as I was shooting a stage.

When I bought an Edge this spring, I had a choice of blued or chrome. The chrome was great looking, but this was going to be a strictly competition gun, so I went with the blue. It worked out, as there's no distraction from a fancy finish.

So......my answer as to what works for me is: Fancy finish for show, low key finish for go.

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I have a weak spot for the 2 tone variation. IMHO its hard to beat the looks of a blue/black slide over a stainless/chrome frame. I have a good friend with a chromed Baer TRS with over 50K through it and still looks new.

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Not that I know alot...but I heard stainless steel is "softer" than steel (4140). So if you shoot a lot and your gun is stainless, you may find that the fitting wouldn't be as tight as a steel gun with the same round count. My first gun was a Stainless P16-40. After about 5K rounds, the gun started to rattle when I shook it. I currently shoot an Edge and right now it has about 20K rounds through it. It is still tight and I have not experienced the same rattling sound that I had with the P16. I'm not a metallurgist so I'm not really sure if this is because one gun is stainless while the other is steel. However given a choice, I would prefer a chromed steel gun over a stainless steel one. :D

For me, I like my guns black. Although there are a lot more benefits with a chromed gun, I just love the look of a black pistol. I guess to each his own! :lol:

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Hard Chrome is great! I have two. One by Tripp. It has held up pretty well. The other done by someone in the aircraft industry. It is fantastic. Look to Kodiak Precision website for an example.

Both have some scratches. Nothing major.

You need to have some of the edges radiused-around the slide stop indentations on the slide. If you do not, you will see some cramming of the chrome.

I have seen a bunch of ION Bond stuff. It looks really good also. I am sorely tempted on my next gun to have it ION Bonded. However, since my next gun is being built by Don Golembieski and his chromer is the best I will defer to hard chrome.

Check the Bulleyes websites for their thoughts on hard chrome. Some of those hard chrome bullseyes guns are still tight after a billion rounds.

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