Is Glock ever going to change back to the good finish?

H

hot sauce

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I get it.....Glocks are a tool and the finish doesn't matter. Well to me it does. I have 7 glocks and they have the good "fry pan" finish. The G17 I bought in 2005 looks brand new and has a lot of rounds threw it. It's been in and out of the holster who knows but still looks new.

Now I just bought a Glock 30S in January and that new finish started looking so bad I sent it to Robar. Like I said they are tools but I like the finish that all my other Glocks have. I'd really would like to get a G41 but I'm not doing this again.

I went to the gun shops around me and all Glocks have the same "not durable" finish. Will they ever go back to the other finish? Why did they do this?
 
If I remember correctly, the finished switched when they started doing the "Made in the Usa" Glocks. The tennifer in Austria has harsher chemical treatments and cant be used in the US due to our own chemical restrictions. I handled a few Glocks in my lgs the other day. Some had slightly richer looking finishes than others. Wouldnt stop me from buying one in the future.
 
If I remember correctly, the finished switched when they started doing the "Made in the Usa" Glocks. The tennifer in Austria has harsher chemical treatments and cant be used in the US due to our own chemical restrictions.
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Even the ones made in Austria have the newer finish.
 
^Yeah, I believe they're all using the less harsh American tennifer finishes now. I've seem some in like a flat grey thatll scratch easy, and up to almost near the past semi glossy pan finish. I've been thinking about buying a 30S, but I'll wait till I find one in person with the best finish available.
 
What you see is not Tenifer (replaced in 2010), or its replacement.
Both were/are treatments of the steel itself, neither was or is visible & neither was or is responsible for the black outer finish that you do see.
Denis
 
As DPris points out, tenifer (melonite is similar) is a steel case harding process, not a finish. The finish (whatever their using at the time) is applied afterwards.
The claim is the cyanide used in the process is not allowed here.

Jim
 
The finish (whatever their using at the time) is applied afterwards.
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Bingo. You can strip off that surface treatment and still have a protected pistol (at least as I understand it) because the treatment itself permeates the metal. HK uses something similar and the surface finish while more durable than what Glock uses can be scratched off without a lot of effort.

If it really concerns you then you could look for a NiB-X Glock or similar that is sold with the newer finish already applied. I have one and it's help up very well. I can't seem to scratch it.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did buy a NiB-X Glock 19 about a year ago. I had to do a lot of stuff to it to make brass stop hitting me in my face.

So how do you get the new finish off? Can I glass bead blast it off? If I bead blast will it rust? Thanks
 
Bingo. You can strip off that surface treatment and still have a protected pistol (at least as I understand it) because the treatment itself permeates the metal. HK uses something similar and the surface finish while more durable than what Glock uses can be scratched off without a lot of effort.
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That's good to know. I have a 1.5 year old Gen 4 that is showing some wear.

I am seeing a few small spots of rust show up. It looks like it is the coating with rust on it. Does that coating rust on top of the treated steel. Or is that the steel slide rusting and coming up thru the coating (if that makes sense). I rubbed it down with oil and it seemed to dissipate.

I was surprised to see the rust as I have cleaned it 5 times (about every 400 rounds) since Nov 2015 and it lives in a safe 99% of the time.
 
As TunnelRat notes, the Tennifer finish is not the colored part that is seemingly easily scratched. Tennifer (by Glock), Melonite (by S&W) and Nitron (by SigArms) are propreitary versions of what is basically the same same sort of treatment offered by several gunmakers -- and is a surface hardening treatment which helps retard corrosion. Tennifer is explained in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferritic_nitrocarburizing

The process that was changed by Glock (and others) had nothing to do with the surface treatment that is easily worn or scratched. Why do folks complain about more recent treatments? Don't know -- but the Glocks I've owned (both before and after the process "change") don't seem that different to me. Others are adamant about there being a big difference.

Additional comments from a site that focuses on finishes: http://www.finishing.com/324/69.shtml

After the tennifer treatment is done, Glock then applies another coating or finish (which is apparently a form of Parkerization) to give it its final color. That final coating, as is the case with the finishes used by other gunmakers, while scratch- and wear-resistant, can be messed up or worn by holster use, but the underlying metal remains hard and relatively corrosion resistant. You hear about all of these guns looking like crap, but you don't hear many comments about rust or deeper scratches in the slide metal.
 
Hahaha, I'll go out on a very short limb and suggest that you have NOT had the Glocks that most of the rest of us have had and used. My MML-prefix (2008 vintage) Glock 29 has the damn good and irrationally tough finish and with 7+ years IWB and pushing 7,000 rounds through it... the only metal parts showing wear are the slide stop, the barrel hood and the barrel muzzle end where it fits in to the slide. The tenifer treatment on this slide is -AMAZING- and tougher, smoother, more durable and wear resistant than any black or blued firearm I have ever owned.

New Glocks are chalky, pasty, dull, show every scratch and are absolutely zero like the finish on my 2008 gun.

Night and day? More like night and a week and a half later.
 
Again- the Tenifer is not visible, and you'll never see "wear" on it.

You can't compare the Tenifer to any handgun's finish in terms of blue or black.

What you see as the "colored" (black) surface is a finish applied OVER the Tenifer, and neither the presence of the Tenifer process nor the one that replaced it has any influence on how well that black finish holds up or wears off.

Whether your finish stays or leaves is a product of the agent used to "color" it, not the presence or absence of Tenifer.
Denis
 
I have to agree. The current Glock finish is pretty horrible. I have old Glocks that don't have a mark on them. I have a gen 4 that showed scratching with only a couple presentations from a kydex holster.

Like has been said though the metal treatment is not the colored finish so you should still have all the corrosion protection etc.

My HKs which traditionally have been known to scratch easier then Glocks are all holding up perfectly in this regard. I have a P2000 that has been in and out of kydex for a couple of years almost daily and looks brand new.

So basically I lament the loss of the old Glock finish as well, but worst case of it annoys me too much I will send it off to CCR or Robar or somebody.
 
Okay.

Remove all references to Tenifer in my post.

My 2008 Glock's finish stomps the ever-lovin' crap out of any Glock made now and any other sub-$2,000 volume production gun on the market and definitely any tupperware.
 
I did buy a NiB-X Glock 19 about a year ago. I had to do a lot of stuff to it to make brass stop hitting me in my face.
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I'll say that you run that risk with any Glock these days, NiB-X or not. The Nib-X coating itself shouldn't encourage that behavior.
 
My carry gun, Glock 19 PPY--- I bought when the Gen 4 first came out. Brass in face, malfunctions all over! Parts/main springs, etc. "Weak wristing?"
Made in Austria.

Now perfect, carry every day, sometimes Kydex, mostly in a $14 Glock factory holster.

But the deep black finish? Still like new, no scratches at all. Wore it as a Security Officer outdoors, lots of getting rained on. Do not do that any more, finally retired, still drive a marked Jeep Cherokee, 2016. Well it is my Son's Company.



My G17 from Canada, an old one, in to Smyrna, for a tune up, they found the frame cracked, gave me a new one, with finger groves. No charge.
 
Is Glock ever going to change back to the good finish?
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Reminds me of when some folks complained about a change in car paint colors, and wondered when some manufacturer was going to "bring back" such & such paint color.

Glock hasn't really talked much about the various phosphate finish changes in the several armorer recerts I've done over the years. They've mentioned the change in the nitration method in recent years, but not the particular details. It's not something armorers really need to know, anyway.

If Glock thought one of their older surface finishes was superior for their needs, they'd still be doing it.

It's not like they're advertising laboriously hand-rubbed, deep blued or nickel finishes, you know. ;)

It's a means to an end (serviceability, non-reflective, dark), not something intended to be put in an illuminated display case and lovingly admired for its aesthetic virtues. :p

BTW, sometimes the surface hardening treatments may not always be quite as unique as some folks might like to think.

Let's say, for example, that one ferritic sale bath nitration treatment is called one name, by a gun company which does it in-house for their own guns ... but when they do the same process for another gun company's products (as a vendor), the other gun company uses their own "brand" name for the process in their advertising. Yes, it happens. ;)
 
fastbolt said:
Reminds me of when some folks complained about a change in car paint colors, and wondered when some manufacturer was going to "bring back" such & such paint color.



Glock hasn't really talked much about the various phosphate finish changes in the several armorer recerts I've done over the years. They've mentioned the change in the nitration method in recent years, but not the particular details. It's not something armorers really need to know, anyway.



If Glock thought one of their older surface finishes was superior for their needs, they'd still be doing it.



It's not like they're advertising laboriously hand-rubbed, deep blued or nickel finishes, you know. ;)



It's a means to an end (serviceability, non-reflective, dark), not something intended to be put in an illuminated display case and lovingly admired for its aesthetic virtues. :p



BTW, sometimes the surface hardening treatments may not always be quite as unique as some folks might like to think.



Let's say, for example, that one ferritic sale bath nitration treatment is called one name, by a gun company which does it in-house for their own guns ... but when they do the same process for another gun company's products (as a vendor), the other gun company uses their own "brand" name for the process in their advertising. Yes, it happens. ;)
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I don't see the OP as looking for display case pistols, but okay. As for Glock themselves not talking about it or not saying they think the older finish was better, no kidding. I'm not knocking armorers but Glock is going to toe the company line in that kind of setting.


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