Best finish for holster wear?

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Madball6

New member
Looking to get the slide refinished on my S&W 1911SC -E series. What's the best finish for mitigating holster wear? If it matters, its primarily carried in a kydex/horsehide IWB holster. I was thinking of Cerakote, but i'm not sure what all the options are and figured I'd just ask for input before doing hours of inconclusive research.


-Madball
 
Ferritic nitrocarburizing (Melonite) is nearly wear-proof as it is not a surface coating (like hard chrome) but a treatment that is part of the metal.

Dave Severns does a version called "Hard Hat Treatment" that I have had done to two guns.

Here is a link to Dave's website.

I have two hard chrome guns and the two Hard Hat treated guns. For holster wear, the Hard Hat Treatment would be better than hard chrome.
 
Hard chrome works well, but it still will show wear. I carried this Commander daily for about 10 years, in a Blade Tech kydex IWB. The "black" marks, are asctually polished chrome, and mirror bright.

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While hard chrome isnt perfect, its way better than many, if not most of the other finishes. Prior to having that Commander hard chromed, it was a pretty Colt blue, and lasted less than a year in often wet, leather holsters, before it was a rust bucket. Hard chrome and kydex knocked 99.5% of that down.

So far, the "perfect" finish for abuse/hard use Ive found, is Glocks Tennifer. Nothing else has compared. Since most of what I carry these days are Glocks, its not an issue. If I were to get something else refinished, Id try and find something as close to what Glock does. Back in the early 90's, I tried to get Glock to do a couple of the other guns I was carrying at the time, and they refused.
 
The "black" marks, are asctually polished chrome, and mirror bright.
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That's crazy. I'm one of the few who actually like holster wear. Really gives the firearm character.

When I see a LEO Python refinished, even by Colt, it infuriates me. :D
 
I've read that the closest thing to a permanent finish is hard chrome.

You might want to think about what kind of holster minimizes holster wear. I get the impression Kydex is hardest on finishes, while lined leather is easiest.
 
Kydex usually just wears the finish at the the few contact points, and tends to be more obvious at those few points. Leather tends to wear the finish more overall, as it contacts more of the gun.

Leather is also hard to clean, and tends to embed dirt, which over time, adds to the finish wear. Kydex is easily cleaned under the kitchen tap.

The big killer with leather is retaining moisture, a non issue with kydex.
 
horsehide is a good choice ...its the least abrasive leather holster out there.

Some kind of a baked on finish ...like Wilson's Armor Tuff ...holds up real well.
 
Hard Chrome is good, Black Nitride, Melonite, Nickel Boron are all better.

I would never do an applied coating on a carry gun unless it was to arrest corrosion. If it was a cheap gun, I might to Cerakote, otherwise, I would go with one of the ones above.
 
"...Hard chrome works well, but it still will show wear..." Yep, but wear on hard chrome is it polishing itself. Does that without coming anywhere near a holster.
Anything else is more prone to the natural abrasiveness of leather.
 
A leather holster that is suede lined will make a world of difference in keeping a gun looking great. I have a HK USP compact 40 that has been carried a lot for the past 20 years and still looks new.
 
I'm just going to say that looking at the site, I really like the hard hat treatment. It looks great. I have no experience with wear but I like the look.

However I assume hard hat is only available in black.

I personally like the idea of hard chrome but this is from experience with other issues. The idea is that it self polishes and should look good for a long time. When it gets worn too bad you just get it re-chromed.

I'm told that Cerakote is great also if it's the one I'm thinking of. Is that the one that is sort of like rhino-liner in that it's a heat treatment?
 
NP3 seems to hold up really well. A friend has had it done to several handguns and it looks sharp.
That being said, I really don't care if my carry piece has holster wear.
On the contrary, it makes the gun uniquely mine imo. ;)
 
QUOTE: A leather holster that is suede lined will make a world of difference in keeping a gun looking great.

For someone concerned with finish wear from contact with holsters, I agree with Mystro's advice. A lined holster (which, albeit, does add to the cost of a leather holster) will help keep even a traditional blued finish intact. I always buy a lined holster if its offered for a particular holster.
 
Hard chrome is far superior to ceracoat, I have three guns that have been hard chromed including a S&W M66-7 2.5" barrel Australian issued PD re-import. I sent it off to APW and had it tuned up, and hard chromed, it has been carried hundreds of times in a Galco Speed Paddle and a Bianchi Nylon Paddle, it looks exactly as it did the day I got it back from Cogan!

I had a Lightweight Commander done in ceracoat by the same outfit, it failed entirely within three days of having been returned! By failed I don't mean that it just fell off, I mean that in multiple positions along the pistols slide it simply flaked off in micro-chips, these had to be looked for under a magnifying glass, but there were at least a half dozen points where the Colt's slide was wide open to the elements, and that is a total failure of the vaunted ceracoat finish!

I consider ceracoat to just be the latest of the so-called spray & bake wonder finishes to come down the pike, they are vaunted as the ultimate this and that, but the reality is they do not bond to the substrate, and not doing that they are easily scraped off, often in just a few holsterings and re-holsterings!

Oh, and ceracoat, it costs more then hard chrome, which to my mind is really just crazy considering how fragile it is in comparison!

You want awesome abrasion protection, its a no-brainer, hard chrome!
 
NP3+ is also a really great finish.
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I have a Beretta 92A1 that has been re-finished in NP3-Plus, its an excellent finish where corrosion is of primary concern, but if wear is your primary concern, not so good, hard chrome rockwells around .68-.70, NP3-Plus(Teflon embedded nickle plating)is much softer, approximately rockwell .50-.52 or so which is still quite hard, yet it will wear significantly, hand contact is known to cause polishing with NP3-Plus.

If the ops post is to be taken at face value, NP3-Plus would not be my first choice, I'd opt for hard chrome, which while nowhere near the corrosion protection of the nickle/teflon, still offers a solid salt spray rating in the 100 hour range, and of course dramatically improved abrasion resistance...
 
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