Is the Glocks finish the best?

B

Blue Duck357

New member
I'm amazed at Glocks Tenifer (sp?) finish. My 23 now has about 1100 rounds through it, carried in a Kydex holster, and regularly pitched in my range bag with other stuff and still not a scratch or a blemish on it. Wipe it down with a lightly oiled rag after a shooting session and it looks brand new. My parkerized guns and even my stainless guns always have a nick or scractch somewhere in a month or so. I understand the older Glocks had a more subdued finish that was not as durable I'm talking about the newer production guns.

Anyone found any commercial finish as good or better than Glocks process? I dearly wish my 1991A1 could have the same treatment.
 
It's definitely the most durable finish I know of. No other gun I've owned had a finish that was as impervious to scratches and sweat as the Tenifer finish on my Glocks.
 
The Walther P99 QPQ(quenched,polished,quenched) is as good or better. I believe its tennifer coated, polished, and then treated with tennifer again. Ive only had mine a short while but its shown no signs of wear yet despite daily carry.
 
A common misconception is that the "black" coating is the tenifer finish. Take sandpaper and remove that black and you will get a dull silver, that is the tenifer. Tenifer soaks into the pores of the steel, and is practically impervious to the elements. Also, it makes the steel harder. You have to actually shave the steel away to get the tenifer off.
 
Tenifer a metal treatment, IIRC. The finish is just plain ol' parkerizing, which is not really the best. Beretta and HK finish should hold up a little better.
 
I had a Berreta 92, holster wear on it after less than 2 weeks, and the top of the barrel showed a lot of wear after only 500 rounds or so.

I had heard tenifer was actually a process to the steel before parkerized but I wonder whether it is the Tenifer undercoating or the parkerizing process that seems to make it so resistant to scratches and holster wear?
 
I have owned a 23 for just over 10 years now, and carried it dailey for 9 of those. It's finish still looks brand new!

While my tastes these days tend to favor 1911's with a highly polished finish, that Glock of mine seems to be indestructable!
 
I didn't think about holster wear on the Beretta for some reason. The finish holds up to scratches and dings from handling very well, IMO. My SIG scratches if you look at it wrong.

The Glock finish holds up fairly well, but it wears fast in a holster. It only took about a month in a kydex holster before I started noticing a lot of burnishing on the edges and a little on the sides.

Since I wasn't 100% sure on the Tenifer, I checked it out. Tenifer is a heat treatment done to the slide before finishing it with the black phosphate coating. The Tenifer does nothing to make the phosphate coating scratch resistant; it serves to protect the bare metal of the slide from the elements.
 
This should answer your question: The EPA won't allow the Tenifer process here. Thus, it must be the greatest thing on earth.
 
As far as rust resistence goes I think Glocks are tough to beat, the black coating is pretty durable as well but does were with time. You will have a hard time getting a Glock to rust. The tennifer is indeed like mentioned above impregnated into the steel and has nothing to do with the outer black coating that some tend to associate with the tennifer.

As far as teh best all around finish on a stock gun I do think Glock is at the top of the heap as well as HK.

Below are a couple of pictures of my Glock23 with the black coating removed exposing the under layer, I do not beleive the tennifer has a color. From my observations it is just the color of the steel. I have been carrying the 23 for quite a while with teh black removed and have yet to see any tipe of wear or corrosion.

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Guys, rather than to go in and edit ever type error in my post I will just say SORRY for them right here and now.

I am no typer, I concentrate on the keys I am punching more than teh spelling of the words,,LOL:)

I am not dat duppid guys.

Jason
 
I don't see how Tenifer could be any kind of heat treatment, as it is supposed to resist corrosion. Heat treatment modifies hardness and toughness, but not corrosion resistance in steel. Also, I hear a "bare" Glock slide looks more like Titanium than steel (yeah, I know, they're both gray, but ask your favorite knife nut--there's definitely a difference) which suggests that some other material is bonded to the steel somehow.

JMack, I really wanted to see the pictures, but I get an error message that says only paying members may link images to other pages.
 
Wow guys, sorry for the raw deal here.

Seems Photopoint has made some serious changes, no more freebies I guess.

I had the pictures posted on GT, TFL ad SF and in every thread I get the same message. Does anybody know of another photo hosting site that I could use?

The 23 does look sharp, much like a two tone with a slightly less reflective surface. Seriously I wish you could view them. If anyone has a good source for me to do this I would appreciate it.

Jason
 
Don, Tenifer is a nitriding process. The slide sits in a salt bath for a certain amount of time at a temperature of about 570*C.
 
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