finish is already wearing on my glock?

briandg

New member
I've not had it for a full year. I'm doing a lot of handling drills. The extractor, the mag release, and a few of the sharp corners are showing bright steel. The edge of the ejector port is shiny, just from thumb wear.

Not a problem, but is this really abnormal? I thought it was supposed to be a "lifetime" finish.
 
This is why I would expect it to last a little longer than 6 months before starting to show wear!

The name GLOCK has become synonymous for progressive material technologies in the world of arms. The Tenifer surface treatment process for barrel and slide has set standards in this regard. The Tenifer process optimizes the molecular structure of the metal surfaces, achieving a degree of hardness which comes close to that of diamond. In addition to extreme scratch resistance, it results in maximum corrosion resistance.
 
You are confusing surface HARDNESS with surface FINISH.

The two are quite different things.

Tenifer, dropped by Glock in 2010, was a surface hardening process not visible.
The actual "finish", the dark part that IS visible, is a chemical process that's very much subject to wear.
Denis
 
Yup... Tenifer is not the black coating you see.... you can actually polish off that black coating and still keep the tenifer intact.

It is a Glock..... why in the world are you worried about its finish. Granted I have a cerakoted Glock... but it didn't cost me anything to do, and its a cutom Glock to match my BCM HSP Jack Carbine.

It's a gun you used for about a year now.... it SHOULD have signs of wear, we'd all make fun of you for owning a safe queen if it didnt. :D:rolleyes:;)
 
If this is correct that the "finish" isn't what is being touted as wear resistant, I can accept that and not care. I've just heard "tenifer/diamond hard" for decades now, and didn't expect to start seeing wear on the ejector area and other places just from finger friction.

One of the reasons I bought glock was so that I could leave out the constant threat of corrosion because I didn't wipe it down every night. Yes, it's a utility gun, and that is what I wanted. The thing was bought new in may, IIRC, and hasn't had a whole lot of ammo put through it. Mostly just drills. It's accurate and effective enough.

I'd like to suggest to the companies that they change to TiN for a surface treatment. It stays a pretty golden color even when you use it to bore holes through hardened steel.
 
Pics would help but I would agree with others it is the surface that wearing not the finish. Glock no longer uses Tennifer but still use a Nitration process which hardens the metal.

The black on the outside is just a color treatment which has changed several times over the years. There is nothing to worry about.
 
at this early point, pics wouldn't show much. the wear isn't pronounced enough to be really obvious, only when you look carefully or catch it in the right light.

You know how a dull knife will show a bright line? Got bright lines on the ejection port, for example. so far no wear on the rounded surfaces yet. It's more durable than blued steel. I guess I just expect too much from the thing. Seriously, it's a GLOCK. The thing ought to get out of bed and fix coffee in the morning, one would think, after listening to the guy who sold it to me...

No, I didn't buy it because of the pitch the guy threw at me, I bought it based on the hundreds of recommendations, especially from a police armorer.
 
And, now you know.

I'll be putting two Glocks up for sale myself tomorrow, and I hope the potential buyer doesn't believe a word I say about 'em. :)

Can't be too careful nowdays....
Denis
 
From the current Glock website:

GLOCK applies advanced surface treatments on major metal components, resulting in slightly less than diamond hardness. This considerably reduces wear and tear on these metal components and makes them corrosion resistant, even when operating in saltwater conditions. The matte black surface minimizes light reflection—an advantage in tactical circumstances.

So they have dropped the Tenifer term but seem to have some finish that does the same thing. OBTW, when I was researching the subject a couple of years back, I found that Tenifer and Melonite are basically the same thing, and the same company owns the trademarks on both of them.

Bart Noir
 
The treatment processes permeates the metal. The surface coating really isn't important. Sort of like HK's HE treatment. On HKs the black oxide surface finish is pretty easy to scratch, but the metal is resistant to a certain depth below the surface against corrosion.
 
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If you rub it down with a little oil on a rag, it will improve the looks a lot.

Trouble is, it doesn't last very long. You need to keep rubbing it down all the time. Then you think, that's one of the reasons I bought a Glock. :D
 
Yeah whatever finish (coating) Glock uses varies from a very dull to a very shiny finish, but either way Glock no longer uses the Tenifer treatment that they once did. Some coatings are more resistant to wear than others, but if worn enough all of them will eventually show some sights of wear it just depends on the quality of the finish.
 
I currently have four gen4 Glocks and three of them have the "teflon" looking finish. The fourth one (latest purchased) has the dull flat black finish on it. The flat black definitely shows wear and scratches easier than the shiny "teflon" finish. I figured if it really becomes an issue, I'll just NIBX or duracoat it.

On one hand I really love the shiny more durable finish, but the dull finish sure does provide a better gripping surface on the slide.
 
This one is the flat black.

I have several knives purchased over the years that are in black teflon; the first was a gerber boot model in 1982 or so. She asked why the black?

Well, dear, it's nonstick. When you disembowel someone, you can just wipe it off on his clothes.
 
I can show you the finish on my $2000 STI 1911 after a year of owning it, which is soft, and looks way worse than guns I have owned for years.... You can always get em refinished when it bothers you.

Your metal is still protected, even if you took Mothers mag polish and litterally polished the slide to a shiney stainless color. As others said and I said.. the black coating... is not the protection.. its just to make your gun black vs shiney. People have polished Glocks for YEARS.

You can still take your glock and jump out of a plane 15 miles off the coast.. and swim with it soaked in salt water, than use it to dispatch a few Florida aligators for dinner.... it wont corrode, the metal itself is treated.

Its a basic defense handgun, it litterally should have signs of wear, and the user should not be worried about that.

Sure TiN is good.... but I leave my golden guns for the competition range and video games. If it bothers you I'd say send it to someone like Robar or someone similar for a Black T treatment.. or if theres even something harder now.... I can't keep up, or rather I don't care to keep up.

I currently own....I think 5 Cerakoted firearms... and owned lots of others in the past.... seems to hold up well for me, and I shoot and carry all of those guns.
 
Not going to worry about it if it will still remain corrosion free.

All I want it for is hoodlums, and the armadillo that my neighbor says is living in my back yard.

Scratch proof has already been fixed; stupid cat jumped onto my kitchen counter not long ago and sent the thing flying. It landed on the cat food plate, smashed the plate to kingdom come, and cut a few scores in the steel. It's not the first time a rambunctious cat has caused havoc here.

Give me a break, people, and don't start with the cat killing and hating jokes. It gets old. I've got one moron who has told me "cats are a waste of good fur" at least once a month for nearly twenty years.
 
It's a Glock, can't make it more ugly and if it works now, it'll probably continue to do so.

It's a blunt implement. Don't overthink it.
 
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