EAA Witness - What is Wonderfinish?

[DougB]

I've been thinking of buying an EAA Witness .45 full-sized, steel frame, blued (the only variation that's tested, approved, and legal here in California). I think I would prefer the Wonderfinish, but according to the CA DOJ, that would make it a different gun - and no longer legal here. I called EAA today to ask if they planned to submit any Wonderfinish pistols for CA approval - they said they might submit some additonal handguns next year, but wouldn't elaborate on when or what. I then asked if a customer could send a blued gun to them to have it "wonderfinished" and he acted like that was a really stupid question "there are lots of places you can get a gun refinished..." (I knew that, but my main reason for wanting the .45 is to get the 10mm conversion for it - which I could order in Wonderfinish, so I was hoping to have the frame match it). Anyway, when I then asked exactly what Wonderfinish is (hard chrome?) he said that it isn't a coating, plating, or applied finish - just a heat treatment done to the base steel to give it a hard surface. Can this really make a durable finish? Anyway, sorry to take the long way around to this, but what has been your experience with EAA's Wonderfinished pistols?

PS - CA sure is a pain. I want an EAA Compact 10mm in Wonderfinish. My closest option is to buy a full-sized .45, order a 10mm conversion kit, and have the whole thing hard chromed. Winds up being a pretty expensive EAA Witness.

Doug

 

[Big Mike]

Tenifer, just like on a Glock, or so I was told...Mike

 

[BamBam]

Taken from the CZ Clone Club board:
"The Wonderfinish on Witness pistols is actually a silver tennifer finish similar to the Glock tennifer finish according to the manufacturer Tanfoglio"

I have a Witness .45 in Wonder Finish...very durable.

BamBam

 

[Snowdog]

I like the Wonderfinish EAA offers. It reliably wards off rust... reliably... reliable... gee, too bad the word reliable doesn't describe my Witness.

This accurate and well balanced pistol has been to the factory three (yes, that's right, three) times, all returned with "test fired-ok" BS on the description of service. Still jams every 3 or 4 rounds.

Fortunately, it looks like mines a lemon of sorts.