pistols, gunsmithingI’m looking at having some older guns refinished and wanted to know what types of finishes are best for removing pitting? I know nickle plating will allow you to remove pits and make the gun look brand new, but what about other finishes such as parkerizing?
No finish will really remove pitting, but thicker finishes will fill in light pitting, effectively hiding it. Nickel plating will not hide deep pitting. If the pitting is very light it may be polished out before finishing (in which case, any finish is fine). Deeply pitted guns will need a filler - either TIG welds, or bondo type fill, surface prep and an opaque coating. (Reactive finishes such as bluing and parkerizing often won’t be uniform where welds are used because of metallurgical differences, and neither will color a body filler). Opaque coatings are generally epoxy paints like GunKote or AlumaHyde.
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