SKS Barrel Refinish

[deerslayer303]

Hello Everyone,

A friend of mine has a Norinco SKS that he is trying to off load to me for a meager sum. The barrel has some surface rust in spots. I knocked some of it off with 800 grit paper (with his permission of course) and of course when I did that it went right down to bare metal, the bluing must be super thin on them things. So my question is if I buy this thing, which the rest of the rifle is in great shape. Can I take that barrel and receiver down to bare metal and use some form of matte black paint. Will anything paint wise hold up? I like the look of a matte/flat black or grey looking barrel. For the 250 dollar price tag I don't think I can go wrong.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Sandpaper does that to bluing!
0000 steel wool will take the rust off without removing the bluing.
You can bead blast the metal and paint it with Duracoat or Ceracoat.

 

[deerslayer303]

ahhh, steelwool. I'll have to remember that. I tried to use the finest paper I had but too late now. I'm gonna get it I think, well pay for it as its at my house. Good selling strategy on his part.

 

[deerslayer303]

Alright, its gonna get the Dura Coat Shake N Spray kit. I'll post up before and after pics.

 

[mikikanazawa]

FWIW, the shake-and-spray cost ($35), plus your time, I don't think you'd be losing too much by having it professionally phosphated. It would be a much more "military" finish than sprayed and absolutely resistant to cleaning solvents. And since phosphating is an immersion process, you don't have to worry about streaks and drips!

I do like Duracoat applied in stenciled patterns though!

 

[deerslayer303]

Phosphated? Like parkerized? Where might one have something like that done? And do you know the cost? The barrel on this thing is only 16.5"

 

[mikikanazawa]

Yes, Parkerizing. (Technically, Parkerizing is a phosphate process.) A few years ago I was working as a contract machinist for several gunsmiths in my area, and they were charging $50 for a phosphate finish plus the few bucks here and there to strip/disassemble the weapon.

Caswell has a blackening kit for $45. I've used it before and really liked the results.

http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits.html

 

[deerslayer303]

Thank you for that Sir! I will look into that more right now. I was going with the Duracoat because of the cost, but this doesn't seem to be much more.

 

[deerslayer303]

How do you keep the inside of the barrel and receiver from getting treated with the oxide?

 

[mikikanazawa]

Plug it with pipe plugs, wax, clay or whatever you can get. The Caswell kit is a room-temperature process so you can use wax, but my preference are those little test tube rubber stoppers.

A friend of mine used those pipe plugs with the nut on the end (tightening the nut tightens the plug). If you can find one small enough it'd probably be the safest.