Metalife Hard Chrome

[stubshaft]

A couple of months ago I bought a Ruger #1-S in 338 WM. It had some light rusting on the right side of it and I decided to either have it reblued or hard chromed. Well, the hard chroming won out as it was cheaper and would be more climate resistant (less prone to rusting). I gave Ron Mahovsky a call and sent the rifle out via USPS.

This is the original:
279431

his is the result:
279432

All in all I think it was worth every penny!

[762sultan]

Is that a satin finish or a little polished?

[stubshaft]

It is like a "semi-matte" finish. It looks bright but does not reflect light as much as a polished blued surface.

[Texas by God]

It looks good- it reminds me of Armaloy; the hard chrome finish of yesteryear performed by a little shop on Daggett Street in Fort Worth, Texas.

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[DougGuy]

That works really well until you go to sell it. Used to see 1911s hard chromed at gun shows, you couldn't give the things away.

[bosterr]

2 years ago I dropped off a muzzle brake for a friend to be Metalifed and was told the prep could either be glass bead or vapor honed and that some what determines how the finish turns out. We opted for glass bead and the finish appeared to be what stubshaft described. Their shop happens to be a 15 minute drive from me.

[nhithaca]

I had these guys do my Ithaca 37 receiver to matchup with the Permcoat barrel and mag tube. Will try to find a pic. Action like greased lighting.

[marlinman93]

The ASSRA Journal covered Metalife and his process in an article years ago. The gun was a Ken Hurst engraved action, and they did it in a finish that resulted in a French gray appearance. Very nice looking I thought. Always planned on having something done, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
My next project I plan to do is a Rolling Block Schuetzen rifle in .32-40, and I think I'll have the receiver done by Metalife.

[Green Frog]

The ASSRA Journal covered Metalife and his process in an article years ago. The gun was a Ken Hurst engraved action, and they did it in a finish that resulted in a French gray appearance. Very nice looking I thought. Always planned on having something done, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
My next project I plan to do is a Rolling Block Schuetzen rifle in .32-40, and I think I'll have the receiver done by Metalife.

That rifle was a Cody Ballard owned by my old friend Dale53. He had Ken adapt the Frogmoor design but when he told people he was going to have Ron finish it everyone went UGGHH, until they saw it. Now everyone loves it! Of course Dale had to share it in a Journal article so we all could see it. ;)

You may have seen another article in the Journal about that same time when there was a Lyman mould block done to see how it would hold up... it was wonderful. There was no discernible change in bullet size, but they sure dropped out easily. That article was written by a well known unknown. (Blush)

Froggie

[M-Tecs]

In the 80's I had a couple of guns Armaloy'ed. It worked as claimed but it posed additional challenges if you were going to do any mod's post plating so I have not used it since. That being said I am wanting one of my Highwall 1885 action in French Gray.

A French Gray type plating would be way more durable than the traditional French Gray so I am looking at plating options.

For SOME rusted firearms the Cerakote high ceramic coating are the cats meow but the Ruger #1 or Winchester 1885's are not one of them.

Very nice.

[marlinman93]

I'd only consider cerrokote on something very modern myself. It's just not a good look on a classic firearm.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Shooters Solutions use to sell some really good zinc parkerizing solution. Did a number of FAL and Ak's with it. That looked good on classic wood stocked guns too. That hard chrome is spiffy though.