6904 Slide Finish Question

[Jonnyuma]

All of my past S&W autos have been of the -06 variety... stainless. I purposely eschewed stainless when I went looking for my 6904. I just wanted all black.

Are the slides on these guns blued? Or are they coated? Or are they treated to something like Melonite?.

The alloy frame is (obviously) either anodized or coated (like an AR reciever), but the matte black slide is something tougher... it wears differently and appears to be less prone to chipping, but not as much as Melonite or SiG's Nitron, or even the polished blueing of Smith revolvers.

The gun is in great shape overall and the tiny shiny spots don't really bother me that much, but a refinish could be in its future. For now a Birchwood Casey paint pen will touch-up the alloy frame, but I'm wondering if I should use the paint pen or a cold-blue to touch up the slide.

 

[squidsix]

The slides are matte blue on the 3904, 6904, 5904, etc.
Not pretty unfortunately, but because they are carbon steel, they can be MADE to be pretty by the end user. I have seen a handful of bright blue slides on 3rd gens. Very pretty.

 

[BMCM]

Are the slides on these guns blued? Or are they coated? Or are they treated to something like Melonite?.

The gun is in great shape overall and the tiny shiny spots don't really bother me that much, but a refinish could be in its future. For now a Birchwood Casey paint pen will touch-up the alloy frame, but I'm wondering if I should use the paint pen or a cold-blue to touch up the slide.

The slides don't really have a coating... Whether blued, blackened or nitrided these are metal treatments that change the properties of the steel surface to increase resistance to wear and corrosion or to just make them pretty. None of these are applied coatings but instead are treatments that are done to the steel. Blueing and black oxide are done with various acids while in, nitriding (ferritic nitrocarburizing) aka Tennifer, melonite, Nitron, Isonite et al., parts are dunked in a bath of molten salts through which is bubbled nitrogen. Nitriding is a form of case hardening and by far the is toughest surface treatment that can be had on steel parts.

So, what kind of steel is your slide? hard to say, I've seen xxx4 guns both with either carbon steel and blackened stainless. For example my 4567 slide is black oxide carbon steel while my 4013 slide is nitrided 410 stainless, go figure.

I think a quick way to tell in your case is try some cold blue on a hidden area, if it doesn't do much of anything you've likely got a stainless slide there. And checking with a magnet is no real help since 410 stainless or any of the 400 series steels are also magnetic.

BTW, H&M Metal processing did fine work on the couple slides I've sent up there for a dip in the Isonite bath, and i'll be sending some more soon. Highly recommended.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Jonnyuma]

Very informative, Bill. Thank you for that. Do you have any pictures of the slides you've had worked-over by H&M?

 

[BMCM]

Very informative, Bill. Thank you for that. Do you have any pictures of the slides you've had worked-over by H&M?

Sure, here's a pair of them...

 

[GeoJelly]

BTW, H&M Metal processing did fine work on the couple slides I've sent up there for a dip in the Isonite bath, and i'll be sending some more soon. Highly recommended.

Bill - nice pictures - they did a great job! They have a nice website but I didn't see any pricing. Would it be too nosy to ask about ballpark-range for slide re-finishing? Yuma ... sorry for the kinda-sorta off-topic ...

 

[BMCM]

As I recall it was $100 per slide plus return shipping. What I did was print up a USPS priority mail label for a small flat rate box and stuck that in there with my check and the parts.

Cheers
Bill

 

[chevy57fan]

For what's worth, S&W can refinish it but they do take awhile. I just got my 6904 back from them. They checked it over for proper function, replaced all the springs and totally refinished it. It looks brand new.

 

[Jonnyuma]

For what's worth, S&W can refinish it but they do take awhile. I just got my 6904 back from them. They checked it over for proper function, replaced all the springs and totally refinished it. It looks brand new.

That might be something I'd be interested in doing... got a decent enough price on the pistol so there's some room to work. Was it expensive?

 

[chevy57fan]

That might be something I'd be interested in doing... got a decent enough price on the pistol so there's some room to work. Was it expensive?

I'm traveling right now so can't access the invoice but it was under $300 including Fedex shipping each way (I think it was $280). I think they replaced the grips too, or they cleaned them really well. The only downside is they have a backlog of work and it took three months.