fishface5
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 9,555
this coating is manufactured by Wheeler. You spray it on degreased metal - in 3 coats, letting it sit for 1/2 hour after each coat - then bake it for 1 hour at 350 degrees. It's about $30 for a 4oz spray can.
I grabbed a bottle of the stuff from fellow forumite & knifemaker Robert Hankins, b/c cold-bluing the white metal on my 1911 mods (like beavertail I installed) simply wasn't holding up, and I wanted a true black coating. My results were mixed.
PROS:
- great flat black color, not gray. The result with the beavertail is especially satisfying. The slide remains blued so the difference is clear.
- easy to apply, especially if you are not impatient
CONS:
- less-than-perfect application will result in an imperfect end product (see caveats)
- finish is not as tough/durable as I had hoped. there are already som scratches on the sides of the beavertail where it rubs the frame, and the finish on the end of the slide stop came off when I tapped it with a small hammer (don't ask) even though I covered the end with paper.
CAVEATS
I was dumb in 3 respects
1. This should be applied at noon on a warm sunny day so you can see exactly what you are doing, to avoid uneven spraying/pooling, NOT at night on the back porch when it's 45 degrees
2. unevenness/pooling cannot be satisfactorily smoothed out by swabbing at the clumps with a toothpick
3. If you try to do a final touch-up of small spots and then don't wait the full half-hour before baking, you'll get bubbling (see slide stop)
luckily this is not meant to be a beauty queen, just a shooter.
Some pics:
I grabbed a bottle of the stuff from fellow forumite & knifemaker Robert Hankins, b/c cold-bluing the white metal on my 1911 mods (like beavertail I installed) simply wasn't holding up, and I wanted a true black coating. My results were mixed.
PROS:
- great flat black color, not gray. The result with the beavertail is especially satisfying. The slide remains blued so the difference is clear.
- easy to apply, especially if you are not impatient
CONS:
- less-than-perfect application will result in an imperfect end product (see caveats)
- finish is not as tough/durable as I had hoped. there are already som scratches on the sides of the beavertail where it rubs the frame, and the finish on the end of the slide stop came off when I tapped it with a small hammer (don't ask) even though I covered the end with paper.
CAVEATS
I was dumb in 3 respects
1. This should be applied at noon on a warm sunny day so you can see exactly what you are doing, to avoid uneven spraying/pooling, NOT at night on the back porch when it's 45 degrees
2. unevenness/pooling cannot be satisfactorily smoothed out by swabbing at the clumps with a toothpick
3. If you try to do a final touch-up of small spots and then don't wait the full half-hour before baking, you'll get bubbling (see slide stop)
luckily this is not meant to be a beauty queen, just a shooter.
Some pics:
