Options to blacken a stainless barrel

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ingEneer22

New member
Like many others, I would like to get that matte black parkerized look on my stainless barrel. I am ordering a barrel from JP and they offer a teflon finish but after speaking to them they admit that cerakote is more durable. Cerakoting seems like the most simple and cost effective solution. I've had it done before and it works pretty good. I am curious about other, perhaps more durable, options. Are there any chemical finishes that can be done to get that matte black finish on stainless? Nitride maybe? I'm building a precision rifle so nothing that might affect accuracy. I don't mind paying for a professional to do the work, what are my options?
 
All the "kote/coat" stuff is paint- nowhere near as durable as nitriding. If you have your gun professionally "painted" you will pay about what nitriding costs.
The paints become more feasible as a do it yourself project.
 
The other way would be have it bead blasted, and hot blued. You would have to find a smith who was set up to hot blue stainless, as it uses a different chemical compound than for hot caustic bluing of regular steel. This, and nitriding, would be the toughest finishes.
 
If nitriding costs the same as Cerakote/Gun-Kote, then it would be a no-brainer.

I would have thought the nitriding process would be much more expensive, but seems like it's more a matter of "setup". To do a few parts wouldn't make sense- but as part of a larger volume of parts to be done the cost/part would obviously be less when the setup time/cost is spread across them.
 
Okay, here is the problem I am discovering with nitriding. I would first have to break in the barrel, then send it in for nitriding hoping that it is perfectly 100% clean of all copper fouling. I called JP and asked them about the process and they said they would not recommend it on their barrels.
 
Black T

Is Black T still an option/available , with Birdsong Industries (?) out of Jackson MS I think.

The founder has passed on, but the family still runs the outfit I think?


Their finish can be applied to stainless, and is tough. Not sure about the inside of bores.
 
Clark, I've not used Aluma-Hyde in a good while, as I found it just rubbed off and scratched too easy. I hope you have better success. That is why I started anodizing smaller aluminum parts, that I used to paint. You might ought to think of the newer epoxy paints out now, etc.

From what I recall, Aluma-Hyde II is another paint they picked up, that bore cleaners wouldn't bother it, like it did the original, but I never saw where they stated it was a tougher finish, as far as wear.
 
It took me a while too get the Aluma-hyde II to work right.

The 70 degrees they talked about was not warm enough, and it seldom gets up to 70 in Seattle.

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So I built a paint closet. I went to the used store and got a 500 watt hot plate. I built a paint closet from scrap wood and scrap cardboard. I made a baffle so the paint cannot drip down on the heater, but the heat can convect upwards around the baffle corners. I put a meat thermometer in the top. To get 90 degrees F I had to wrap an old blanket around the closet. I had the hanger hooks through the top connected to sticks I could twist to rotate the objects to be painted inside.

The paint dries thick and hard. I have done 3 rifles.
I call it "one part epoxy paint".

The nozzles were sputtering with the thick paint from previous use.
Browells sent me some clean out nozzles.


I had to get the right kind of the (6) CRC brake cleaner to clean the wood and metal. It is 05089.

You could get this paint to chip with a hammer and chisel, but it would be hard work to get a little chip. It is thick and hard.

For me, that is night and day difference with Rustoleum paint, that rubs off.
 
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