Gun Type Finish ? for Marlin 1894

[JesterGrin_1]

Is there a more durable finish than the standard blue such as Parkerizing or browning or? Ideas and thoughts would be most welcome. Thank You

[Wicky]

For durability parkerising is probably a good bet - there are a lot of exmilitary firearms out there that are parkerised and they still look good

[singleshotbuff]

Jester,

How about one of the bake on finishes like DuraCoat or Cerama coat?

I'm redoing an NEF 20ga for my son and I'm gonna use Cerama coat on the metal. I ordered an aerosol can of it from Midway yesterday for about $19.00.

I plan to post my results with it when I get the little shotgun done.

SSB

[wiljen]

I'll vote for duracoat. I bought the ez-kit for stainless and german blue to redo a hi-power clone, a 22 truck gun, and a Winchester 94 that had seen better days. The stuff is tough as they come and good looking to boot. I had tried the baking lacquer from brownell's and duracoat is infinitely tougher.

If you do buy the duracoat, buy extra reducer to clean up afterward, and an extra can of propellant. I bought enough to do about 6 guns all told for around $125.

[Johnch]

Dura Coat wears well

I built a AK and did it OD Green
After several thousand rnds it still looks like new

Just wear a good mask while spaying , that stuff is nasty to breath

I used a cheap Harbor Freight detail spray gun

John

[GSPKurt]

Hard chrome, electroless nickel, teflon coating are all good options as well as Dura-Coat

[shunka]

I have had parkerizing show holster wear after perhaps 10 years and it has the additional disadvantage of adding thickness.

The bake on finishes show great promise, come in a variety of colors, and have the advantage of being able to touch them up yourself.

My personal preference for extreme durability is one of the industrial hard chrome finishes, if matt they have a grey finish, are harder than files (65 R.C.), and are more rust resistant than stainless.

If you want pure blue old timey hot tank bluing done over time is hard to beat for beauty and somewhat more durable than a factory finish.

I build muzzleloaders with carded rust brown topped with linseed oil . It's very historically correct, looks quite nice, and is easy to "touch up" - just add more rust. but is is not exactly durable nor is it really appropriate for a modern firelock.