I wonder if most melonite bores are rougher than bare steel bores?
The process will not change your bore's finish (other than the chemical change). If you have a fine lapped bore, it will be so after nitriding. If your bore is rough and the chamber full of tooling marks, it will be after nitriding. Nitirding leaves an extremely hard surface layer. This increases the lubricity of the metal somewhat, regardless of the finish. The downside to this increase in RC is that it takes much longer to brake in a barrel (if it ever brakes in) and smooth out any reamer marks than it does with a non treated bore. That is why it is very important to make sure your barrel and chamber are exactly they way you want them before you nitrocarburize them. Your not going to get rid of any reamer marks or burrs after nitriding without some serious effort or very hard tooling.
