Parkerization?

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JayFramer

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Hi, all! :)

What are your thoughts on parkerization as a gun finish? I’m going to have some ghost ring sights installed on my Remington 870 Police in the future and the barrel will need to be refinished. The entire gun is parkerized right now. I can either have the barrel re-parked or have the engire gun cerakoted at additional cost.

Is parkerization just fine and would the cerakote job (would cost about $150) just be not needed? Thanks!

-Jay
 
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I like it-- it's not hard to do, nor very expensive. I recently redid a Victory revolver that was completely without a finish and I liked the results (other than a couple of spots where I didn't degrease well enough, which will need touched up). The American Gunsmithing Institute's kit has all the chemical stuff you'd need, and a nice set of instructions, including a DVD. You still have to come up with a stainless tank to do it in, but that's not a big deal-- restaurant supply stores will have a steamtable pan that will work.
 
Unless you want a change in color, I'd suggest staying with the parkerized finish. It will cost less to do just the barrel ( or use less in supplies ). I don't think that Cerakote has any real advantage over the park ( perhaps a but less maintenance ) .
 
Parkerizing is a low cost, but good finish so long as you keep it oiled or greased. Parkerizing is a porous finish and will absorb whatever hits it first. Those old World War II Garands, Carbines, and 1911-A1's were pretty well preserved because they were coated in Cosmoline, wrapped in Kraft paper, crated, and shipped. It's really good when those firearms were stored in hot warehouses, the pores in the finish opened up and the Cosmoline filled the pores. Without oil or grease, the parkerized finish will absorb moisture, skin oils, and sweat, which leads to corrosion.

The porous nature of parkerization makes it a good base for spray-on finishes such as KG GunKote, but the spray-on finish needs to be applied before any oils contact the parkerized surface. Otherwise, any oils or grease need to be boiled out of the finish before spraying.

Since your receiver is already parkerized and, hopefully, is well oiled, I'd have the barrel re-parked and keep the whole firearm oiled.
 
stansdds said:
Parkerizing is a low cost, but good finish so long as you keep it oiled or greased. Parkerizing is a porous finish and will absorb whatever hits it first. Those old World War II Garands, Carbines, and 1911-A1's were pretty well preserved because they were coated in Cosmoline, wrapped in Kraft paper, crated, and shipped. It's really good when those firearms were stored in hot warehouses, the pores in the finish opened up and the Cosmoline filled the pores. Without oil or grease, the parkerized finish will absorb moisture, skin oils, and sweat, which leads to corrosion.

The porous nature of parkerization makes it a good base for spray-on finishes such as KG GunKote, but the spray-on finish needs to be applied before any oils contact the parkerized surface. Otherwise, any oils or grease need to be boiled out of the finish before spraying.

Since your receiver is already parkerized and, hopefully, is well oiled, I'd have the barrel re-parked and keep the whole firearm oiled.
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Sounds good, think I’ll do that!
 
I like Parkerizing, it holds up and protects well as long as you keep a bit of oil on it. In my experience it holds up much better than cerakote. I've had a couple of revolvers parkerized and one rifle and they came out great.
 
Parkerizing is a good, time-proven finish, but to say that it's as good or better than Cerakote is a demonstrably false statement. Parkerizing will do its job so long as it is cared for properly, but Cerakote is an extremely durable low maintenance finish which can be more or less neglected in anything but the most extreme conditions without worry of corrosion or wear.

If the name hasn't already tipped you off, Cerakote is a ceramic coating, ergo it's extremely durable, heat-resistant, self-lubricating, and all but impervious to the elements which cause steel to rust. Basically, unless you intend on storing your firearms beneath the docks at the pier directly in the salt water, it isn't going to rust with Cerakote.

If it were me, and I had the money, I would choose a Cerakote refinishing over a Parkerizing. In fact, the next firearm I plan on purchasing (Mossberg Shockwave) is one with a factory Cerakote finish, and there are cheaper models which are Matte Blued or Parkerized.
 
I had a Remington 742 parkerized in the early '80s.
I wanted something non glare and it worked out nicely.
Still use that rifle every year and with a little care the finish has held up.
 
Perhaps the best gun finishes one can have is parkerized with one of the spray and bake Teflon finishes applied over it. Looks good, wears well, and is more protective than parkerizing alone.
 
I have a closely related question about Parkerizing.

How hard is is (if its even possible) to repair small areas without re-Parkerizing the entire gun?

I have an RIA 1911 with a flat Parkerized finish that is worn off in a few spots on the grip frame. I'd like to fix it up without doing a complete refinish. Anybody ever done anything like that successfully?
 
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I like it on Military guns but much prefer a deep blue or as Colt calls it a "Royal Blue" bluing job on regular firearms. For EDC I like Stainless Steel and reserve Nickel mostly for the Colt SAA "Cowboy Guns".
 
The factory parkerized finish on my duty 870 rusted fairly easily (it seemed to be a thin coating). I had it re-parkerized. Since then I've treated it with Boeshield T-9 once a year and after 15 years of duty use I've had no rust issues. As I understand it, Boeshield T-9 was developed by Boeing as an anti-corrosion spray for aircraft. It also works well on my woodworking equipment.
 
The original military phosphate finish (Parkerizing) involved an after-application dip in a sodium or potassium dichromate bath. That soaks into the coating and, along with an oil application, inhibits rusting very well. At one time, dichromate was added to vehicle anti-freeze to perform the same function, but I believe something else is used in newer anti-freeze formulations. It is not so easy to perform in-situ re-coating of limited wear areas of a parkerized finish, but re-dipping the entire item in a hot phosphate bath will do the job. I will repeat my earlier recommendation - use a spray and bake Teflon coating over the parkerized finish, by far the best way to increase wear and corrosion resistance. I have done that with many military-finish guns (Garands, Carbines and .45 pistols). I used black Teflon, but other colors are available. The phosphate finish makes an excellent base for Teflon application.
 
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I would sand/bead blast all the parts of already fit up 1911 (Parts Guns) and place them in Parkerizing solution at 185*F for about 30 min. (The more times you use the solution the better it works. When fresh I would throw in a wad of steel wool for 20 min to get the reactions going.) The parts were rinsed with cool water then given an oil bath. I have used everything from spray on WD-40 to a used motor oil dunking! The black used motor gave the finished results the purchasers liked most! The guns were reassembled and fire within 2 hours, this was before the finish had completely cured, allowing the finish to "wear into the tightest fit". My personal 1911 had a Essex frame installed in about 1990, the rest of the gun has my 1982 finish on it. My finish has worn less and resisted rust better than the Essex factory finish.

For the finishing of handguns and small parts a small enamel roasting pan ($5) over a Coleman stove, with a dial thermometer ($4), will do just fine! I never dared to refinish handguns in the house, therefore, I'm still on my first wife!

I don't see the trying to touch up a "spot" on any Packerized piece, as a good idea. You could acid bath, and do the whole piece and re-Parkerize the entire part (or whole gun) in about 2 hours.

From my experience, a smooth polished surface will take a Parkerized finish fine, but a sand blaster/matt surface will take on a deeper grey, almost black color, when using a dark oil bath.

I WWII the Germans used a similar process on MG-42's then it had a baked on true enamel finish on exterior parts (either black for normal use, or white for the endless winter of the Eastern Front) These highly use guns look almost new to this day (unless chipped by being run over by a T-37)

Ivan
 
Dirty Harry Callahan said:
Parkerizing is a good, time-proven finish, but to say that it's as good or better than Cerakote is a demonstrably false statement. Parkerizing will do its job so long as it is cared for properly, but Cerakote is an extremely durable low maintenance finish which can be more or less neglected in anything but the most extreme conditions without worry of corrosion or wear.

If the name hasn't already tipped you off, Cerakote is a ceramic coating, ergo it's extremely durable, heat-resistant, self-lubricating, and all but impervious to the elements which cause steel to rust. Basically, unless you intend on storing your firearms beneath the docks at the pier directly in the salt water, it isn't going to rust with Cerakote.

If it were me, and I had the money, I would choose a Cerakote refinishing over a Parkerizing. In fact, the next firearm I plan on purchasing (Mossberg Shockwave) is one with a factory Cerakote finish, and there are cheaper models which are Matte Blued or Parkerized.
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Cerakote is hardly "all that", it looks good when applied properly but it is very susceptible to holster wear. The guns I've had that have been Cerakoted did not hold up well to holster wear at all. I'd rather have parkerizing, hard chrome, DLC, or even good old fashioned blue than Cerakote or any of the other spray on/bake on finishes.
 
Goldstar225 said:
The factory parkerized finish on my duty 870 rusted fairly easily (it seemed to be a thin coating). I had it re-parkerized. Since then I've treated it with Boeshield T-9 once a year and after 15 years of duty use I've had no rust issues. As I understand it, Boeshield T-9 was developed by Boeing as an anti-corrosion spray for aircraft. It also works well on my woodworking equipment.
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Extremely interesting. I looked up that product and it appears to be a spray on wet solution that dries to form a dry coating of sorts? Is that right?

Maybe I could save a lot of headache and money and just do that? Seems for as many that say cerakote etc. etc. is so great, others say it wears off easy and they’d rather just have parkerization. Also, it seems guns used in some of the toughest fighting EVER, that being WW2, were parkerized and they didn’t didn’t rust and fall to pieces immediately now did they?

Probably just overthinking this one big time, gang!
 
JayFramer said:
Extremely interesting. I looked up that product and it appears to be a spray on wet solution that dries to form a dry coating of sorts? Is that right?

Maybe I could save a lot of headache and money and just do that? Seems for as many that say cerakote etc. etc. is so great, others say it wears off easy and they’d rather just have parkerization. Also, it seems guns used in some of the toughest fighting EVER, that being WW2, were parkerized and they didn’t didn’t rust and fall to pieces immediately now did they?

Probably just overthinking this one big time, gang!
Click to expand...

Yes, Boeshield is spray on that fills the pores in the finish then dries. This apparently prevents water, sweat etc.. from getting to the metal. That's my theory anyway. 15 years in my patrol car since I've started using Boeshield, rain, sweaty hands and I've had no rust issues. I think it probably works better on a parkerized surface than a smooth blue finish since it penetrates. JMO.
 
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