Title says it - opinions sought on Cerakote - good or bad, adds value or subtracts value?

I restored this Model 31-1 with the black Cerakote finish. I'm entirely happy with it. While it had perfect charge holes and bore, it's finish was a disaster. Way better now and the finish covered up some scratches, yet left the lettering sharp and readable.

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Keep your powder dry.

I prefer to reserve painting to my house, truck and my Harley. Don’t believe in painting my guns. I like them Blued, stainless or Tupperware.

I’m generally not a fan of refinishing, but this old warhorse had been badly neglected before it came to live with me. I’m very satisfied with the outcome and wouldn’t hesitate to have another one Cerakoted should the need arise.
Good shootin’,
Doug

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If you ceracote a vintage arm, you will ruin its collector value. All you will have is a common blaster in whatever caliber you have it in. The value in vintage firearms is their original condition. The instant you refinish it unless you do so such that it is original factory you decrease its value substantially if not destroy it altogether. The only desirability of a gun so defaced is for either parts, a truck gun, or a cheap throw-away grade gun for self-defense. Only guns like P08 Lugers and vintage Browning Hi-Powers that are refinished like this are given the time, money, and attention to restore them to factory. The upside of this for the rest of us is you make the guns we have in original condition more valuable by reducing their number in the market.

Several years ago I had my CZ P-09 slide milled for an RDS , by Primary Machines in Louisiana.
I wanted to change things up a little and have them cerakote titanium color on the slide.
After quite a bit of use over about a year, in and out of a Kydex holster at the range during self defense target practice and training, slide shows virtually no wear.
When I self defense target practice, I draw from a holster every two shots, so you can just imagine how many times this pistol has been in and out of the Kydex holster. I know I've gone through at least 2000 rounds , so that equates to 1000 times in and out of the holster.
If you want closer pictures of the slide I can do that.
With all this said I would not hesitate to cerakote any of my weapons.

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2 Cor 5:17
John3:16

I personally like ceracote finished guns. I wouldn't do it to a collector gun, but wouldn't hesitate to do it to a shooter. I have several shotguns that have been ceracoted and have a handgun in the shop being done now. It was a used gun I picked up and the finish was rough. I wont have to worry about the finish one it's done and you can personalize it to make it different from the crowd.

J3

Obviously, refinishing a collector gun is a bad idea.

That said, there are plenty of non-collector grade S&Ws out there where refinishing is appropriate. I have two re-patriated M10s that were police guns in SE Asia somewhere that are perfect examples... they are project guns, and will never be anything but a shooter. A good refinish will actually improve thier value and useability as such.

I hard chromed several guns in the 80s, and was pleased with the outcome, but I'm less knowledgeable about Cerakote and other modern alternatives. It is one of the options I'm considering, and offers a lot of room for creativity in the finish.

Looking forward to seeing more examples!

Sadly, just about any aftermarket refinishing lowers the value, regardless of how much better it may be than the original finish or even if the original finish was completely stripped away.

As for Cerakote itself, I like it. I have a Mossberg 590 Shockwave with a factory FDE Cerakote Finish. It looks good, (and I'm not a fan of FDE) it's smooth to the touch, and it's very strong. Once my hand slipped while I was attempting to loosen the pesky safety screw and the screwdriver scraped against the receiver, leaving behind a silver line which I presumed was the bare metal beneath the Cerakote which had been scratched, but upon cleaning it, I discovered that the silver line wasn't a scratch, it was from the screwdriver itself leaving a line like a pencil upon the finish and it came clean off without a trace.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

If I had a worn out no finish wreck that I was able to make operational I might put cerakote on it to protect the metal, but that would be the only reason.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Gander seems to have numerous S&W 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Gen pistols all Cerakoted. Wondering why - were they all in poor finish condition or just their thing?

You are different!!! Just like all of the other guys who paint their guns!

This gold cup had been parkerized so the collector value was gone.

here it is cerekoted (top)[IMG][/IMG]

I have a Rock Island Standard .45 that is factory Cerakoted. It has never shown any signs of wear after a 1000+ rounds.

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Heavily armed old man.

I don’t have a problem with the refinishing of firearms, just not the use of Ceracote or similar products, especially on handguns. When the paint starts chipping and pealing, it looks works worse than the original finish. As others have stated, paint is for houses and Harleys. If you want to refinish a firearm I’d use hard chrome, black nitriding, re-blue, nickel, etc.

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213th FBINA

If you're considering cerakote, the firearm in question must be finish damaged. Or an AR type of thing. In those cases I don't think it adds any value. Kind of like putting a new roof on a house doesn't increase it's value. People expect firearms to have a finish of some kind just like we expect a house to have a roof.

Nobody would really consider cerakoting an otherwise good condition collectable.

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