My Cerakote jobs on all my guns are great. BUT they have been done by a small gun shop in believe it or not, Kalifornia. They were one of the first to really get in to it. They take there time and are not cheap. But 1st class. In Cerakote the prep is everything. And time consuming and labor intensive if done properly.

 

DLC it

 

My primary shooter, my Para Govt model is factory cerakoted and the finish has held up fairly well. I am not a gentle soul and I use my pistol roughly and I admit, it has dropped from my hand once (I was responding to a range emergency and my pistol had just run cold) but the scuffs and scratches are honest and all me.

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This pistol was built in 2004, completed in March of that year. One of my best friends bought it from the gunsmith new. When he passed in 2012 his widow gifted it to me. I've shown it before with the full story build details. It's been holstered, carried, shot in competition and for fun in the past 16 years. The most wear is on the left side thumb safety. Outside of that the cerakote has held up great.

I briefly thought about getting it refinished but I'm just keeping it the way it is.



My older son has this Para he bought through a program Para offered at the end of one of his deployments. It's mostly a range toy but has held up very well also with similar wear on the thumb safeties:

 

Looks like your son opted for the double stack mags. Is is .40 or .45?


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I’ve carried a Colt’s lightweight commander off and on for over 4 years that the alloy frame has held up extremely well on. If applied properly it’s as good as blueing. Most probably not as good as parkerized or DLC.

 

Remember this a spray and bake. Prep is everything. Chuck Rogers recommended it to me on a partial build. It has hung in wonderfully. Several of my friends went the cheap route and are watching their finish flake off.

 

Yes the P14 .45 is what Para offered up. He’s put a fair amount of rounds through it however it mostly sits. I bought him a Baer TRS Comanche in Bear Coat as a gift when he was home on r & r during that deployment that is his main pistol.

 

Well, Para’s reputation was questioned at the time. I love mine (I bought two, sequentially serialized) but I am slowly replacing the MIM with billet forged parts as the MIMs wear... I need new sights too!! My Trijicon Tritium night sights are already at half-life!!!


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My buddy and I apply cerakote and its all in the preparation making sure the gun is fully degreased and all parts gassed out before application. All of my cerakote jobs are holding up incredibly well, my 19 especially which is the most used coated weapon I have still looks fantastic after 6 years of being in and out of holsters and carried. Most the wear issues ive seen from cerakote have to do with very abusive use or really poor prep/application

 

My buddy and I apply cerakote and its all in the preparation making sure the gun is fully degreased and all parts gassed out before application. All of my cerakote jobs are holding up incredibly well, my 19 especially which is the most used coated weapon I have still looks fantastic after 6 years of being in and out of holsters and carried. Most the wear issues ive seen from cerakote have to do with very abusive use or really poor prep/application View attachment 592569

Pardon my ignorance but what do you mean by “gassed out”

 

Heating the metal up after bead blasting it and you bring all the oils to the surface then fully degrease and we will heat it again to make sure there are no oil spots showing on the surfaces.

 

@pistolwretch
I have heard on this forum that you prefer to apply Ceracoat over a Parkerized substrate.
Is this what you recommend? And is it for better adhesion to the gun or better wear resistance?

 

@pistolwretch
I have heard on this forum that you prefer to apply Ceracoat over a Parkerized substrate.
Is this what you recommend? And is it for better adhesion to the gun or better wear resistance?

Adhesion has never been a concern. I have not seen any peeling or flaking occur on any of the guns/knives/tools that I have Cerakoted. This includes the stainless and aluminum guns I have coated, neither of which can be parkerized.
The Parkerizing (manganese phosphate) does add another layer of protection and wear resistance.
Fresh and sharp aluminum oxide (100-120 grit) used to prepare the surface is key, as well as complete cleaning using acetone or brake cleaner.
Once blasted do not reassemble as the pieces rubbing against each other will 'dull' the texture created by the blasting.
Dipping the parts into an acetone bath is not good enough. The dissolved oils are still in the acetone, albeit much diluted.
I use brake cleaner out of the can as there is no recycling, the contaminated solvent is not re-used.
I assist the drying using a hair dryer. Unlike air from any compressor, the hot air from the dryer contains no oils. Also this eliminates any water spots that might show up as the parts dry.

 

^^^^^^ Methodology from the master.
Thank you Chuck.

 

My buddy and I apply cerakote and its all in the preparation making sure the gun is fully degreased and all parts gassed out before application. All of my cerakote jobs are holding up incredibly well, my 19 especially which is the most used coated weapon I have still looks fantastic after 6 years of being in and out of holsters and carried. Most the wear issues ive seen from cerakote have to do with very abusive use or really poor prep/application View attachment 592569

I must say...that looks far better than I anticipated...

I had a new cerakoted and my experience is not similar to yours. They hold up ok comparatively speaking, but not nearly this good.

 

There are a lot of applicators out there that just don't take the prep time which is key on this stuff. Any oils whatsoever left in the metal will ruin the finish, that's why we take so much time in prep and heat the part before coating to make sure all oils have been purged from the part and degreased with brakclean or similar before spraying the coating. really sucks when you spend a couple hours and have a bead of sweat drop on it and you have to degrease and reheat again but it makes for the best end product

 

Adhesion has never been a concern. I have not seen any peeling or flaking occur on any of the guns/knives/tools that I have Cerakoted. This includes the stainless and aluminum guns I have coated, neither of which can be parkerized.
The Parkerizing (manganese phosphate) does add another layer of protection and wear resistance.
Fresh and sharp aluminum oxide (100-120 grit) used to prepare the surface is key, as well as complete cleaning using acetone or brake cleaner.
Once blasted do not reassemble as the pieces rubbing against each other will 'dull' the texture created by the blasting.
Dipping the parts into an acetone bath is not good enough. The dissolved oils are still in the acetone, albeit much diluted.
I use brake cleaner out of the can as there is no recycling, the contaminated solvent is not re-used.
I assist the drying using a hair dryer. Unlike air from any compressor, the hot air from the dryer contains no oils. Also this eliminates any water spots that might show up as the parts dry.

I have followed all this advice from Chuck when applying my own Cerakote. It has held up really well with the no chips on carbon, stainless and alum without parkerizing. I only use kydex holsters and the only area I have wear is on left edge of the muzzle from the draw stroke.

This one Lou did when he built my G19. It’s has 4-5k rounds and many tens of thousands more of dry fire.

This was the first one I did. It has a similar round count and carried in kydex like my G19.