What finish you should choose for your firearms depends on your application and use. Whether it’s for builds or rebuilds, high-quality firearm finishing is crucial for every project. Depending on the stock finishes that you’re looking for, there are many different ways you can finish your pistol or rifles.
Horsley Park Gun Shop provides a range of premium quality gun stock finishes and gun refinishing kits for you to choose from.
FIREARM FINISHING SELECTION
A lot of work goes into refinishing a firearm depending on how you want them to look. Whether you want a high gloss, matte look, or two-tone finish, there’s going to be different criteria on how you are going to prepare those parts. Today there are dozens of rifle stock finishes on the market to choose from. Here’s a sample of what’s available:
Black finishes/ Gun Bluing. The gun bluing finish is a traditional way to protect steel from rust, corrosion, chipping, and peeling using a black oxide coating. The black oxide coating protects and blackens stainless steel, silver solder, cast iron, or brass copper. Though bluing is done in various types of processes, the finish results in a blue-black appearance, hence its name. What bluing process fits your gun?
Cold bluing. Best used for small touch ups or repairs, offering only essential protection. It can be a challenge to apply evenly so it is better for smaller areas and features a very dark gray finish.
Hot bluing. Mostly used by the large firearms industry, and more economical. It is done by dipping steel parts in a solution of potassium nitrate, sodium hydroxide with the water heated to its boiling point or a mixture of nitrates and chromate also heated to protect the gun from rust and corrosion.
Rust and fume bluing. The safest process to rebuild a vintage shotgun as it provides the best rust and corrosion resistance.
Whatever bluing type and processes you may use for your gun, you can enhance its appearance by polishing and sealing it with a finishing kit such as this walnut wood stain. It will bring out the richness and beauty of wooden gun parts and will give a tough and long-lasting finish.
Coatings. Depending on your firearm use, you need to consider what coating should be applied. Is it for recreational purposes and occasional use? A gun that you carry every day or a gun you use in your truck or in a boat? Or is it for hunting? This will inform the type of conditions your firearm is likely to be exposed to most often and therefore help you decide on the best coating. This will help your gun to be more durable and water-resistant.
Coatings can either be applied through the gun spraying or dipping process. Spray finishes can only protect the area that the spray gun reaches while the dipping process will cover 100% of it. Every firearm enthusiast has different colour or coating options when it comes to gun finishes. Choose from silver, coloured or stainless finishes.
Parkerizing. Also known as phosphate finishing, parkerizing is a gunmetal treatment that is tough, resistant to scratches and immune to corrosion compared to bluing. This is done by dipping the steel parts into a heated bath of phosphoric acid solution and results in a matte finish ranging from medium gray to dark black depending on the chemical solution you’ve used.
As you’re finding out what’s the best gun finish you should use, keeping them clean helps the longevity of whatever firearms you own. Boresnakes, patches, cleaning cloths, brushes, jags, and mops are some of the gun cleaning tools every gunsmith must-have.
SHOP GUN FINISHING AT HPGS
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