Cerocoat

[mdi]

I was cruising my local box store Sporting Goods dept and noticed two revolvers I might like. One was a dull stainless steel Taurus 685 and one a dull black Rock Island M200 (nope, don't need either but I got to thinkin'). The dull black kinda put me off, but I wouldn't mind owning another 4" 38. So, has anyone done a Cerocoat clear coating on a dull finished revolver? My dull SS guns finish doesn't offend me, but a shiny SS finish may be attractive (my 629 is beautiful). A shiny black finish would change the whole looks of a revolver and I might like it...

 

[Airborne Falcon]

I've never tried it but I've seen some ... never much cared for a painted revolver.

 

[mdi]

Not really "painted", I'm asking about clear coating the charcoal briquette finish to acieve a smooth shiny finish...

 

[JCooperfan1911]

Just buy a blued revolver, something more decent than a Taurus or Rock Island.

 

[Blue Jays]

Rather than investing in either of those mid-level revolvers and paying extra for a Cerakote finish it might be easier to buy a better revolver and likely get a superior finish as mentioned by JCooperfan1911 above.

 

[crestoncowboy]

Lol. But he didn't ask if anyone thought he should buy a Taurus or a Clerke or Roxio. He simply asked about the finish. I have Benelli, Beretta, fox, winchester etc etc shotguns...... you know what my last shotgun was? A Smith 916. Awful gun. Cut down barrel to boot . Lol. Before that it was another supermatic...with the dial a duck on that bad boy. I have Beretta target and Hammerli 22 pistols.. my last 22 handgun is a (quite awful) Smith 422. Lol . I have some very expensive and beautifully made rifles. I deer hunt with a truly bottom of the barrel plastic and painted Mossberg Patriot. It works for everything. I have k frames and mk Rugers, Buckmarks, Neos, etc but if im just going out with a 22 it will likely be my Glock 44. Before that it was my Mosquito. I am actually on a roll with finding good deals on guns that people hate, usually for good reason. I haven't happened upon a "good gun" at a decent price in a couple years. I almost had me a beautiful old womgmaster 1100 the other day until I shouldered it and the ejection port was in my face. Lol. Dang lefty.

I have a beautiful 66 F100, a mach one and a 2021 F150. I drive daily this


Just because I like it. Lol. I bought it when I was in school. Ive parked it for junk twice but ended up going back in the hollow and getting it out. Lol. If your kid whacks it with their door at the store...I dont care. If someone hits it with a buggy, so. Ill never know. If it spontaneously combusts and burns to the ground oh well. And it happens. Ive seen 3 trucks burned down in the past year. One was my in laws new duramax. The other 2 were Ford.

Don't assume the OP doesn't have good guns. Great guns even. Sometimes we just buy a POS because we want to

I've used ceracote some. Personally I'm not a fan. Is pretty nasty stuff, and only slightly better than spray paint....and I paint cars occasionally and own a garage so I know all about chemicals. As far as you color combo I just do not know. It does spray flat and pretty easy. Its not cheap for what it is either.

I dont care for dull or brushed stainless. I hate that my x frames are that swirly stainless. Almost looks like someone took a DA sander to it. Lol. My Colt 1911s have a nice shiny side and the almost sandblasted top....very ugly and yeah I know why they are that way. My 617 is a decent finish I suppose but I guess I just prefer bluing. I have a stainless Taurus 1911 I bought when they first came out that's pretty nice finished

 

[Speedo66]

OP said "...but a shiny SS finish may be attractive...".

Buy the stainless Taurus if you like it and spend a little time polishing its dull stainless finish to the mirror finish you desire.

Will cost next to nothing and the finish is forever. Unlike other coatings or finishes, including blueing, scratches are easily polished out on stainless.

 

[Oldschool shooter]

I'm not sure if the clearcoar would make the dull finish all that shiny, but for the cost of the Rock Island revolver plus the cost of ceracote, one could get a pretty nice 4" Model 10. I've shot a Rock Island, not a bad revolver for the money, but refinishing and new springs and trigger work will never make it the equal of a Colt or S&W. Just my opinion.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I'm not sure if the clearcoar would make the dull finish all that shiny, but for the cost of the Rock Island revolver plus the cost of ceracote, one could get a pretty nice 4" Model 10. I've shot a Rock Island, not a bad revolver for the money, but refinishing and new springs and trigger work will never make it the equal of a Colt or S&W. Just my opinion.

I wonder if the cerakote would even stick to stainless. I know a department that had several stainless Beretta 96 that were brunitron finished. You could pretty much scratch the brunitron (looks like black cerakote) off with your finger. Beretta refinished a couple and told them that it would happen again and not affect function. They never had any real issue. My sig legion is pretty bad too. Can holster it and lose some finish. Luckily I don't care about all that Purdy ness. So I don't know how well cerakote sticks to stainless. Ive not even been impressed with its sticking to properly prepped metal. Lol. I did a Mossberg I got not long ago in "HK flat black" cerakote. Its OK.

As far as polishing...ive thought about it on a few of my smith guns. I hate the brushed look. But dang thats a lot of work for something that just isn't functional anyway. Lol. I'm lazy I guess. Paint a couple cars and you probably won't want to polish anything...ever again. Proper block sanding and polishing and such is no joke.

 

[bannockburn]

crestoncowboy

As far as polishing...ive thought about it on a few of my smith guns. I hate the brushed look. But dang thats a lot of work for something that just isn't functional anyway. Lol. I'm lazy I guess. Paint a couple cars and you probably won't want to polish anything...ever again. Proper block sanding and polishing and such is no joke.

Trust me it's not a lot of work (unlike prepping a whole car), and can be done while sitting in the comfort of your own home; you can even do it while watching TV!

All it takes is some Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish, some clean cloth rags and a bit of elbow grease. The Ruger Vaquero was done over the course of a few nights by a friend of mine. I did the S&W Model 649 in a couple of days in my spare time; same with my Model 686. Every now and then I touch-up any areas that are looking a little dirty and dull with some Flitz Metal Polish.

 

[Elkins45]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ceracoat is a great way to spend $100 to turn a $400 gun into a $300 gun.

 

[Odd Job]

Bannockburn, those came out nice!

 

[crestoncowboy]

I bought my last ceracote on clearance. Lol thats why I have a mossberg that is "HK flat black" because that is the color that was on sale. And my 20 dollars in cerakote turned my 75 dollar mossberg 500 with a bulged barrel and cracked stock into at least 125 dollar one . Lol. But yeah my opinion of cerakote isn't super high either.





I sprayed it in my shop with an old primer hvlp that was almost worn out. I use bad tsc or lowes or Eastwood or harbor freight guns for epoxy primer and even 2k primer. Then use good guns for paint and clear. I didn't even try to clean it so I can't say how bad that would have been. I just tossed it. But my first impression was that it would have been impossible to clean. Ive never cleaned a gun that I sprayed cerakote (or por15) in. Chunk them

 

[Waveski]

I think that the clear coat will age in an ugly fashion.
Go ahead and buy the brushed stainless Taurus. Lay in a supply of Flitz and Mother’s Mag Polish. Soft cotton cloths , lots of patience. I have achieved excellent results with soft cotton wheels in a dremel ; some would say no to that.

Great results can be achieved using this approach, and the end result is the real polished steel rather than a stick on clear coat that will not endure.

 

[mdi]

Well, thanks so far(?). I have several revolvers including 3 Taurus. On my late '90s blued guns the bluing rivals some of the best blue jobs from most (S&W). The fit and finish on all three is very good to excellent. With a few thousand rounds through the first 2, zero problems, two very good accurate guns. I have only 500 or so through my 905, so far flawless. Much more than "decent". I also own a Rock Island 1911, purchaed in 2010, also much more than "decent". I own shiny SS S&W and Rugers, I own blued S&W, Dan Wesson and Ruger revolvers, I have a few "shiny black" pistols, so I know what is available...

Now back to the original topic/question; has anyone used Cerocoat on a gun? Does anybody have any first hand knowledge of Cerocoat? Aybody know the "life" of a Cerocoat finish?

No more "suggestions" on buying different guns, or badmouthing the guns in question, please!

 

[crestoncowboy]

Like I said. Ive seen it used. Mostly on car parts, but that was on aluminum. It does well on raw aluminum and is quite shiny and lays down flat. Those cars though are not really "used" so I can not speak for durability. Ive used a good deal of cerakote myself but not the clear (or the blue which I do plan to try once I find a mediocre gun to use it on). Ive also never known anyone to use it on stainless. Thats the part that would worry me a bit. There ARE several automotive clears that are for stainless. Probably wouldn't cost more either.

Have you used any cerakote before?

 

[mdi]

Thanks Cowboy. Never tried Cerakote (correct spelling. my faux pas in previous posts). I was not planing to buy the RIA, just asking a "what if" type question. I have worked on many of my guns, many times, but have never tried any finishing/bluing/polishing...

 

[bannockburn]

Odd Job

Thank you sir! With Mother's Mag Polish it really doesn't take much time to get those kind of results; just some effort on my part to get them shiny like that!

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

I wonder if the cerakote would even stick to stainless. I know a department that had several stainless Beretta 96 that were brunitron finished. You could pretty much scratch the brunitron (looks like black cerakote) off with your finger. Beretta refinished a couple and told them that it would happen again and not affect function. They never had any real issue. My sig legion is pretty bad too. Can holster it and lose some finish. Luckily I don't care about all that Purdy ness. So I don't know how well cerakote sticks to stainless. Ive not even been impressed with its sticking to properly prepped metal. Lol. I did a Mossberg I got not long ago in "HK flat black" cerakote. Its OK.

As far as polishing...ive thought about it on a few of my smith guns. I hate the brushed look. But dang thats a lot of work for something that just isn't functional anyway. Lol. I'm lazy I guess. Paint a couple cars and you probably won't want to polish anything...ever again. Proper block sanding and polishing and such is no joke.

Aren't the steel parts on Ruger LCRs stainless steel that is Cerakoted?

 

[crestoncowboy]

I have worked on many of my guns, many times, but have never tried any finishing/bluing/polishing...

I only asked about cerakote because its pretty dang strong smelling although the MSDS sheet wasn't terribly scarey... the clear may be different. Use respirator and gloves and all that good stuff. It sprays well. Its 2 part so you have to mix it. If you can spray paint you could do it. Never had a run either. I usually just strip them, clean with automotive paint prep/ grease and wax remover. I use spi brand simply because I use their automotive clear and primer. (its cheap cleaner and a great mild grease and wax remover) then spray several coats and hang them up by the stove. Speeds curing time but isn't actually necessary. I believe the manufacturer calls for 7 days for full cure. Minimum 24 hours for use. I know they say that longer is better. I use a 10-15 dollar hvlp gun. Ive used everything from a .8 to a 1.7 tip. Which pretty much covers what any cheap gun will have. Smaller the tip the slower you can move. Made little difference with the cerakote though. It isn't prone to run. Im sure its possible. I keep acetone, mineral spirits, and epoxy thinner as cleaning agents. Generally one of those will clean up anything. One of them worked for clean up drips with the cerakote. Acetone I believe. I don't bother with the spray guns.

The clear ive seen used was on valve covers, accessory mounts for a big block Chevy conversion and one aluminum wheel (a spare that would be mounted in plain sight on a truck bedside). All were aluminum though. Looked like clear over aluminum. Lol

As I said before, Beretta and Sig both done a coat over their stainless slides (Beretta did some, sig did on a lot) . Both are very well known for having issues with keeping it on their slides. Lol. Not a functional issue. Just aesthetics. Cerakote may stick to stainless, but I have my doubts. On cars we use some fairly pricey epoxies for stainless. Cerakote is also fairly thick. Several mil thick. Might be an issue on some tighter guns.

Aren't the steel parts on Ruger LCRs stainless steel that is Cerakoted?

Could well be. And it may well stick.. I just dont know. Pretty expensive to spray and find out and stripping the gun could really be a beast lol. Id call the company. I know lots of things won't adhere to stainless.

 

[mdi]

Thanks Cowboy, good info...

Mixing and spraying with a PPE? Probably won't bother. Last spraying I did was power coating cast bullets and that was messy enough for me!

 

[herrwalther]

A clear coat won't put much luster back on a dulled revolver. If you polish the revolver first then clear coat it, that would look much better.

 

[mdi]

Not a "dulled" finish, I was thinking about the dull, flat black finish that's becoming popular on new guns.

 

[gobsauce]

Not a "dulled" finish, I was thinking about the dull, flat black finish that's becoming popular on new guns.

Like matte?

 

[mdi]

Like matte?

It may be called "matte" or "black oxide". Just look at a new gun, with the finish gaining popularity by manufacturers, dull, flat black (like a charcoal briquette). RIA, Taurus, Mossberg, Glock slides, some Ruger rifles, and others are using it. Don't know how to explain ir better...