Cerakote Vs. Type II Anodize, How do they compare?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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n10sivern is now coating flashlights in Cerakote, a tough ceramic finish that is painted on then baked. The question presents itself as to just how tough this finish is against standard anodizing? So n10sivern coated a Sipik SK68 and sent me both the coated one and a stock one to compare the finish.

Now, I didn’t set out to destroy the finish on either light. As y’all know there are many ways to annihilate a light but that’s not what is at question here. In normal daily use, the kinds of things most of us might be prone to see happen to a light, that’s what I was interested in. There will be some of you disappointed because I didn’t go to further extremes. Well, the 2 little SK68’s sent to me are not tough to begin with, easily gouging in the base metal. That being said, the base light itself is a weak point and the finish on top of the weak aluminum… well, see for yourself.

The Cerakote was beautifully applied, making the light look better than a factory unit. Specifically, the Cerakote on the pocket clip is considerably tougher than the paint they used on it originally. With the anodization bead blasted off and he Cerakote baked onto the new surface, I feel like this was a fair test, but wish the light being tested had been of higher initial quality. As you can see above, putting a file or a good knife to the finish created pretty much equal results, with the ano standing up a little better to scratch tests with the point of a D2 steel blade. Neither finish was up to a razor sharp D2 blade whittling on it, as the metal underneath gave way regardless of finish.

So I was off to the great outdoors, too see how these fared against some loose ashpalt…

I’m about 200 lbs (ok, a few over that, shhhhh!) and I figured a good standing/grinding/stomping action into loose asphalt from the highway would be a good test simulating dropping a light in the dirt/gravel and accidentally stepping on it. :slight_smile: As you can see, both finishes took some abuse, neither really seeming to win this one, maybe the ano was a fraction ahead here…

So I figured perhaps a little more drastic test would show a glaring winner. I threw the lights skittering down the asphalt drive. :slight_smile: Bouncing and smashing rocks, again a pretty normal occurrence dropping a light off a 4-wheeler or some such catastrophe. :slight_smile:

Well I gotta tell ya, the poor little cheap Sipik lights were getting tired of this! Gouges, cuts, busted metal at the fins and tail cap, yeah, these lights weren’t really made to be carried hard and abused. Cerakote or Type II either way. lol

Oh, yeah, they still worked after all that…yes, I was doing this to a fully assembled light with a Sanyo Eneloop inside. :slight_smile:

Back to our driveway, a normal 45 year old asphalt surface, figured what they hey, the loose stuff did some damage, what about a nice hard blacktop? So I tossed em out there to see what gives…

I know, it might seem kind of rough on the soul to do something like this, and in some ways it is, but with the greater though in mind to find out if this finish would protect a nicer light, it wasn’t such a big deal. In the end, both lights still work, so there’s something to be said for that anyway.

I’m figuring I got some of the vids out of order or duplicated, that would by about par for the course for today. YouTube doesn’t have them in order and I can’t seem here until I save it. So, bear with me and I’ll try to fix anything blatantly wrong.

Upshot of it all is, for me, that the Cerakote holds it’s own pretty well against a standard ano finish. The normal things that are going to hurt the Cerakote would also do almost exactly the same thing to the anodize. I really like how well n10sivern did this little light, dang near flawless to tell ya the truth and I’d be proud to have a light or 3 finished with this coating done by him. I feel like the Cerakote will excell in hiding small scratches and rubs, stuff that would keep showing on the ano.

I like the Cerakote, it is very favorable, but for this light, by the slightest of margin, the win goes to the factory finish. *With note that the clip didn’t fare well in the painted form on the stock light.

Ano by a nose.

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I guessed right. Why do I feel disappointed. Nice testing! I think the Cerakote still looks nicer than the factory finish when you started.

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Well, good thing I didn’t bet much on my horse! :smiley:

Thanks :beer: :beer:

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Thanks for the tests Dale. The videos demonstrate how the two compare in various situations well.

I was surprised how easily the Cerakote was scratched by the D2 blade. Maybe the aluminium sheared off because it was soft? I wonder how much the type of metal makes a difference.

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What a surprise!

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When Dale mentioned something to me after the tests, I was like

These are the cheapest of the cheap lights. They were way overpriced at the $9 and change I paid for 2 of them shipped. From China these would be $2-3 lights each. In order to be so cheap, they likely used an inferior, cheaper, soft aluminum. I bet the base metal had a lot to do with failure of both finishes. I honestly went in to this without a clue what finish would win. I know my results with Cerakote vs other finishes on steel and vs cheap anodizing on firearm parts, and there is a reason most all of my personal firearms are Cerakoted. I wouldn’t have done that had I not gotten favorable results from the finish. That being said, I have just started coating flashlights and this is new territory. My heart was saying cerakote because of my time and effort, my brain said anodizing because of how it is done, and my gut told me it would be a toss up.

I wonder how two lights with a harder aluminum alloy would fair? Hmmm, maybe a future test??? Realizing now how soft the metal in these light were, I’m actually surprised the anodizing didn’t annihilate the Cerakote. Since anodizing is structurely ingrained with the metal, albeit just slightly in the case of Type II, it HAS to be much stronger than Cerakote on soft base metal that gets damaged. The Cerakote is applied on top of the metal so these gouges just take the metal and Cerakote off. I’ve Cerakote several plastic stocks, and they look great until they get banged up. The Cerakote sticks to the plastic just fine if it is compressed in or dented in, but once pieces of plastic start getting scraped away, so does the Cerakote, and the underlying plastic color (usually black) shows through. I think the same happened here and the a Cerakote gave up the ghost when the metal did. That being said, I’m surprised the Cerakote did as good as it did. In my mind, if it hung with the anodizing on the soft base metal, it has to be better on harder alloys, and could prove itself in that situation.

THANKS TO DALE FOR HIS TIME AND EFFORT IN THE TESTS. SEND ME A LIGHT AND I WILL COAT IT FOR YOU AS A WAY TO SAY THANKS.

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Not what I expected.
Thank you for testing and finding the real life facts. But I must admit: the outcome is not what I had hoped it would be.
Of course it’s only a matter of time to come up with a new idea (alibi) why I should treat myself to a nice Cerakoted flashlight. :wink:

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Excellent real world testing Dale! Still Cerakote is a viable surface coating if only by a nose. Especially for those that are tired of the boring black/grey/gold anodizing? Great job to both of you guy’s!!! :wink:

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Oh by all means! I wouldn’t hesitate to have a favorite light cerakoted and “dressed up”. I baby my lights (for the most part) as I always did my guns and now my camera’s. Some normal wear and tear is acceptable but I surely don’t toss my stuff around, have it rolling around in a tool box or the bed of a truck or anything like that. So under some small modicum of care I’m sure the Cerakote will stay very nice looking for a very long time.

Thanks for the offer, now I have to figure out which light to send ya! :stuck_out_tongue:

A bare aluminum one made from scratch?

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Whatever you want Dale. You can pretty much figure out what I can and can’t coat.

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Thanks for this side by side test guys. I’m not overly surprised by the result but would be curious to see a side by side test of something made of harder material as n10sivern indicated, say a higher grade of aluminium (6061 or 7075?)

I’ve had a couple of cooly’s that were cerakoted (one grey and one white) I still have the white one. I noticed the cerakote on was not the applied the same thickness on them, the white seemed to be coated thicker. I wonder if that would affect the results? I also wonder if white is the hardest colour as the pigment for dark colours in auto paint supposedly makes the finish softer (by a small percentage).

I also have a red elephant II and I try to pamper that thing as it looks shiny and easy to scuff. Anodizing on the other hand usually has a matt finish (or pitted finish, from bead blasting?) and minor scuffs seem less prevalent.

Anodizing can be done in just about any colour but for some reason the manufacturers often stick to the basics. That makes cerakote more appealing as it’s a simpler process to re-colour a light with cerakote than re-anodize.

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n10sivern, have you experimented with Cerakote thicknesses? For firearms, I’m sure thicker coatings would introduce tolerance issues but I think lights are more forgiving.

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Thanks Dale, nice work. The actions speak for themselves.