Melonite Or Armornite?

[m&p2.0fdethumbsafety]

when i scratched away the fde cerakote on my gun slide, underneath it was a silver color. i'm assuming it's a nitrided steel surface?

 

[rosewood]

when i scratched away the fde cerakote on my gun slide, underneath it was a silver color. i'm assuming it's a nitrided steel surface?

I am betting they don't nitride the cerakoted slides. Probably just stainless you are seeing there. Not real sure cerakote would stick very well to a nitride coating.

Rosewood

 

[Smakmauz]

That would be correct according to Smith and Wesson. They say the cerakote is done over their amornite (nitride/melonite). Remember that nitride doesn't have to be black... that's just one of the last steps of the process where they can use a different chemical bath to give it the black color. Usually nitride without the black adds a bit of a grey hue to the base metal so it can vary depending on the exact steel alloy used. CZ had a gun that they did the slide in what they called "white nitride" which was just nitride without the black oxide treatment.

 

[rosewood]

No, they say that anything "Armornite" is nitrided. I imagine that they use low carbon stainless because it machines easier, then nitride it for surface hardness and cover it in paint.

Well, I assumed wrong. Their webpage does indeed state that the FDE slide is stainless with armornite.

Learn something new every day.

Rosewood