The worst of it is the gunsmith that did the coating over sandblasted the frame and did not put a heavy enough coat.

http://i564.photobucket.com/albums/s...ellsWare10.jpg

and

http://i564.photobucket.com/albums/s...ellsWare11.jpg

I had a blued Colt New Detective Special I bought back in the early 70's. It was a daily carry for me for a lot of years. I had read about a new process called Armoloy, they were out of Texas I believe. I shipped it and had the process done. After all these years, even though it was dragged through the mud, the blood, the guts and the beer, there is absolutely no wear on the coating. It's easier to clean and basically guaranteed not to rust, bust, buckle or bend. Back then it cost around $50 to have the process done. I don't know what the cost is nowadays, but it would be worth the cost to have it done if anyone is interested. I'll take some photos if anyone wants and post them here.

$2,500 Nighthawk, with Perma Kote same as Creakote per Creakote. Here are pictures after three days of use at Gunsite.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4786.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4785.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4780.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4775.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4771.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4773.jpg

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...3/_DSC4778.jpg

For whatever it's worth. Here's the Colt I had done with the Armoloy process back in the early 70's. There's no holster wear, I use both a belt and ankle holster. There's no wear on the cylinder from the pawl. The Colt has seen hard use over the years. I don't know how the process would work on an auto pistol, but I'd be willing to bet the results would be the same.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rsnest/006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rsnest/005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rsnest/001.jpg

Never used Cerakote, but I used Duracoat and I obtained the same results as Mike45 posted. I was very unimpressed. If I were going to spend my money on something other than bluing, I would look into the ion-bond type treatments like Hard Hat.

From all I've read in reports over the years there are two best choices..
Severns custom Hard Hat, or DLC IonBond is what they coat oil well drill bits for drilling through rock.. IonBond is also used on cutter bits for hard metals..
I've never read a report about anyone who wasn't thrilled with Hard Hat or any of Severns work and will be my choice when CBOB gets a little more beat up..

If you want a black coating, Hard Hat is the only way to go. My Fusion has the ion-bond treatment and I'm not all that impressed with it. The Duty Coat on my CCO is 100 times better than the ion-bond and I would imagine that the Hard Hat is at least as good as the duty coat.

So... there ya'go..Glad to hear that. It was the way I was going..

And if youre a poor boy like me or just dont want to dump alot into a beater gun lol....
Freedom gunworks has a nitride bath treatment for 150. He calls it Atranite. I havent used it yet, but i will be giving it a try.

I'm pretty set on IonBond, but Cerakote is right there in the running. I really like the choice of colors in Cerakote, I just don't think it is as tough as IonBond.


I've got a pm out to Dave Severns about his Hard Hat, not quite sure what this on is about yet