Sidearms & Scatterguns Home Parkerizing: Before and after

[Downzero]

I’ve been searching for the best method to refinish handguns at home. Home gunsmithing is fun, and I enjoy adding some little parts here and there, but it sucks when your fancy new thumb safety, magwell blending, etc. is missing finish. It not only looks like crap, it can rust. I experimented with an applied finish, moly resin, but I found that it's a pain in the butt to apply evenly with a cheap airbrush. Parkerizing, on the other hand, is really easy. I bead blasted all of the guns after degreasing them with oven cleaner, and here's the results:

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:




After:





Before:


After:


And here's an after pic of another STI. I did the slide, but not the frame. I've since refinished the frame as well, to eliminate the idiot scratch put on it by the previous owner.



Thoughts? Btw, ignore the swirls where the serial numbers are for obvious reasons.

 

[DMann]

Re: Home Parkerizing: Before and after

Very nice. I am assuming that is Manganese Phosphate? If you do the Zinc Phospahte then slather in cosmoline for the "curing" process, you get that nice retro WWII greenish tint. Also, parkerising is a great base for a teflon or other bake on finish as the park solution chemically bonds to the surface of the steel.

 

[Downzero]

Re: Home Parkerizing: Before and after

It is maganese. I am not really a fan of the gray or green parking. I like black. But sure, if that's your preference, go for it!

I didn't park my guns to get a retro look. Even though I'm a student, I shoot 10,000+ rounds a year. These guns belong to a friend of mine who shoots even more than I do. With the kind of shooting I do, I need to protect my guns as much as I can.

Here's a final "after" shot of my single stack and limited guns:

I also stippled and double undercut the grip on this gun and fitted an Ed Brown wide thumb ambi thumb safety (and severely profiled the right side safety so my high grip doesn't interfere)



It turns out that my Kimber's slide stop, firing pin stop, and frame are stainless, and so I left it in this 2-tone.