No. Powder coating is basically melted plastic. You apply it electrostatic ally to metal and bake it to essentially melt the plastic. It is thick so you can’t spray threads with it. Duracoat is another firearm coating which is a thick paint. Cerakote, what I use, is a tough ceramic bake on paint. It is a two part paint mixed with a hardener. It is sprayed thin so you can coat threads and generally don’t have tolerance problems. Cerakote will scuff with abuse but often can have some oil rubbed on it and the scuffs disappear. As with any finish it is NOT indestructible, but is tougher than just about every other finish out there. When I started I coated a piece of carbon steel. I blasted the rust off it, coated it, and put it in a cup of salt water. I left it there until the water had evaporated weeks later. I washed the dried salt off the item and no rust. To me, that’s good enough for my firearms.
How does it behave when damaged?
If a flashlight is dropped resulting in a small dent / deformation of the underlying aluminum. Will cerakote stay fully bonded at that dent? Can it crack?
It doesn’t really crack. I’ve seen it stay on dinged up metal but it depends on the ding. It can only give so much. One the ding reaches a certain depth it will cause the cerakote to chip off the dinged area. The surrounding cerakote will stay intact
Actually, the stainless 1503 is a light n10sivern is building for me, so… :bigsmile:
I wanted to check in to see if a sales thread will be available soon.
Yeah, I was gonna post it today, but I had a problem last night. I decided to try out some gloss spray on some lights that I sprayed in a new color. I had a problem with the gloss adhering so I will have to blast those down and respray them. I’m waiting to hear back from cerakote why I was having adherence issues with the gloss. I can tell you, the orange was awesome with the gloss. I’d like to be able to show lights in all the colors that I have so that people can see what they look like. I don’t want to post a thread, have people send me lights then all change their colors. I just want people to have all the info up front rather than stringing them along.
The new color is blue titanium. I added some black to it because it was too blue initially. It’s kind of a blue gray. It more blue in bright light and more charcoal gray in dimmer light. I like it. Ignore the imperfections. I did scratch tests on these with the gloss so the gloss is peeled off in some places.
Understood, minus the imperfections those look great! Can’t wait to get some of my lights coated.
The blue titanium is sharp! (I’m still good with stainless on the 1503.)
I love the Titanium Blue-Gray color!
I like Supfire in bronze.
First visit to this thread and I have to agree with everyone else, you do really nice work and are offering it at reasonable prices. Are there any limitations on type of metal being coated, copper, brass, etc? I’m thinking Marvin’s ray gun could use some green and burnt bronze.
Doesn’t have to be metal. You can cerakote dang near anything. Plastic just has to be able to withstand temps 150-250. The metal type shouldn’t matter. It just has to be blasted to make the surface irregular for adhesion
Those colors all look great to me.
The Blue Titanium looks fanatastic. Great job n10sivern. Interesting set of firearms too.
I have to wonder why the Glock has Cerakote on it? It’s original Tenifer finish was much more durable than anything available to us here in the States.
I’ve seen a lot of glocks with worn finishes.
I’ve seen a lot of files dulled to scrap trying to cut Tenifer finishes. Are you saying Cerakote compares favorably to Tenifer? Tenifer is actually several thousandths deep into the metal host, even if the black outer coating is worn off from years of carry, the Tenifer is still in the metal pores protecting it.
Glock no longer uses Tenifer, since 2012 I think. It uses Melonite finish now. Even with the Tenifer, Glock put a phosphate coating over it for appearances. I have seen Glocks with rust from worn finishes from holster wear, but I think it is more prevalent with the Melonite. The Tenifer and Melonite which is similar are nitriding treatments for the metal, but Glock still top coated them. The top coating is what wears off, leaving a really dull looking dark metal finish. Cerakoting and Tenifer are not the same by any means. Cerakote is much better than the phosphate top coat that Glock uses though, but Tenifer and Melonite actuly treat into the metal which Cerakote doesn’t.
I only know about Glock from their debut. I was best friends with a gunsmith at the time and did a lot of work on a few Glocks. They didn’t have a coating at all. I know this because I got commissioned to completely remove the Tenifer finish from a 17L Longslide Competition gun. After I was done I polished the bare metal and it was deep blued like a Colt Python. Came out real nice and was a unique piece for the Officer that used it in competition shooting.
After taking my own Model 23 too far with checkering on the sides and ruining it (just don’t know when to stop, it went full auto) I put a Caspian SS slide on mine with a ported window and 4 holes in the top of the barrel. Not long after that, Glock started doing the exact same thing on their new 17L. I had one of the very first 23’s, couldn’t resist back then. I remember there being a lot of controversy about the Tenifer, that is was considered Toxic by the USDA and not allowed to be done in the US. Since I’m really easy on my prize possessions, it’s not likely I would have ever seen the kind of wear and tear that would have shown issue.
I learned how to make leather holsters back then, didn’t like the hard plastic Kydex for the wear and tear problems. Certainly though, Kydex is one of the best ways to carry here in Texas as it gives 100% sweat protection. My leather allowed breathing and you could pull the piece and see sweat beaded all over it. That was back in ’91-’92 or so.