Tenifer is just a metal "treatment" and does not produce a cosmetic feature to the slide. Simply stated, it's just a cheap and inexpensive way to surface harden soft alloys.
You can wear the finish (whatever the finish happens to be) off the slide, but you can't wear the Tenifer treatment off the metal.
Salt bath ferritic nitrocarburizing is also known as liquid ferritic nitrocarburizing or liquid nitrocarburizing[8] and is also known by the trademarked names Tufftride[2] and Tenifer.[9]
The most simple form of this process is encompassed by the trademarked Melonite process, also known as Meli 1. It is most commonly used on steels, sintered irons, and cast irons to lower friction and improve wear and corrosion resistance.
Glock Ges.m.b.H., an Austrian firearms manufacturer, utilizes the Tenifer process to protect the barrels and slides of the pistols they manufacture. The finish on a Glock pistol is the third and final hardening process. It is 0.05 mm (0.0020 in) thick and produces a 64 Rockwell C hardness rating via a 500 �C (932 �F) nitride bath. The final matte, non-glare finish meets or exceeds stainless steel specifications, is 85% more corrosion resistant than a hard chrome finish, and is 99.9% salt-water corrosion resistant. After the Tenifer process, a black Parkerized finish is applied and the slide is protected even if the finish were to wear off. Besides Glock several other pistol manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson and Springfield Armory, Inc., also use ferritic nitrocarburizing for finishing parts like barrels and slides but they call it Melonite finish. Heckler & Koch use a nitrocarburizing process they refer to as Hostile Environment. Pistol manufacturer Caracal International L.L.C. uses ferritic nitrocarburizing for finishing parts such as barrels and slides with the plasma-based Plasox process.
Last edited by 41magfan; 12/14/14.
