Touching up slide finish?

[mnarcher]

I have a couple very small wear spots on the slide on my M&P and one on one of my Glocks. The Birchwood Casey blue pen does not work. Anyone know how to touch it up?

I know, I know, it's a gun, it's a tool, and that stuff happens, they are badges of honor and whatever. But I like to keep mine nice.

Thanks everyone.

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[MichiganScott]

The slide is finished by a ferritic nitrocarburizing process. The finish effectively becomes part of the metal itself. It's pretty much the same process Glock uses.

It can't be touched up like using cold blue on an older blued revolver. Your only real choice would be something like DuraCoat.

 

[Bkreutz]

Or use a black Sharpie, don't laugh, give it a try. It may surprise you. It's not very durable, but it's easy to reapply.

 

[CB3]

The slide and barrel are both made from stainless steel, which does not take blueing. Any topical application of color, such as a permanent marker, will only be very temporary.

Unfortunately, there is no real durable touch up for small spots, scratches, etc. The slide at some point either needs to be refinished to bond the finish to the stainless steel or coated with a product like Cerakote or Duracote which will bind to the surface, but not as well as the nitrate bath OEM process that gets into the surface structure of the steel rather than a paint that lays on top of it. These go under many different proprietary names, Tennifer, Armornite, etc.

 

[BAM-BAM]

The slide and barrel are both made from stainless steel, which does not take blueing. Any topical application of color, such as a permanent marker, will only be very temporary.

.

Ditto...................you just need to embrace the "character" of your used but not abused gun!!

 

[mnarcher]

Ditto...................you just need to embrace the "character" of your used but not abused gun!!

And that is part of why I bought a duplicate of two of my favorite guns. Then I have one at home that is a safe queen.

I was just curious is all.

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[Walt Sherrill]

I'm pretty sure that the ferritic nitrocarburized finish on the slide is NOT what colors the metal -- (although that process can leave a dark residue, which is cleaned off before color is applied.)

That finish is a surface hardening treatment. The color you see, which often closely matches the polymer frame on some models, is applied AFTER the surface treatment is done. Nearly all of the finishes of most new semi-autos have a variant of the finish, which is tweaked by each gunmaker so they can claim theirs is best. Tennifer (Glock), Nitron (SIG), Melonite (S&W), and Harsh Environment (H&K) are all very similar. The color applied to the nitro-carburized metal is different, and somebody somewhere probably can tell us what that is -- as that's what shows the wear and scratches.

When the gun's finish is almost black, a matte black auto touch-up paint, delicately applied, will cover minor cosmetic problems. You can also mix and match a couple of different colors model paints to get an almost perfect match, if your gun isn't black.

Either way, you may just have to touch things up from time to time, as solvents will eventually reveal the scratches or cuts again. Eventually, you'll likely say "to heck with with."

 

[italiansport]

Just for the heck of it try some Birchwood Casey Aluminum finish and see if that works. I've used it for other applications where touch up bluing won't work at all. No guarantee here but it's worth a try.
Jim