Our only local smith offered to parkerize a rifle for about half what he charges to blue. He prefers it and stated since he can control the bead blast prior to refinish it will look almost the same as bluing.

More I think about it I had him "matte" finish a 22-250 once and he was cheap but it looked more gray than normal, still ok but not dark. Maybe it was parkerized and he didn't say. I didn't ask.

THOUGHTS?

Bluing you have to spend alot of time polishing all the parts and into the nooks and cranies, bead blasting is much faster. The old saying "time is money" still hold ture

Guess I should have been more clear both are matte finish. He did say that he would have less prep time but maybe he didn't totally understand either.

David,

It really depends on how you will like what you get with a park job. If you've seen military rifles that are park'd, you know what your rifle will look like. For nice sporters, I like a matte blue. But, I have a couple of Rem 513 series rifles that are park'd. I don't mind it with those rifles.
For me, nothing beats a rust blued, matte, sporter.

Don

Parkerizing is an actual built up “coating” for exterior metal, not to be used for close fitting parts with tight tolerances.

Nothing that tight on a factory 700..grin...

Just having him do the barreled action and bolt shroud. It's a cheapy build I did but the darn thing shoots like a house afire.

Dave

Maybe your 700’s are different than the ones I own.

Aren’t the factory shouds aluminum? I wasn’t aware that aluminum could be parkerized.

Could be....

Given any thought to an applied finish like Cerakote? I've seen some beautiful results from that kind of technique, and supposedly very durable, and relatively cheap.

To a poor boy like me $175 plus shipping isn't cheap. Plus this whole rifle was done "on the cheap". Used up LVSF stock that took me about 3 trys to get the old bedding out and new correct, used SA that happened to have a fantastic trigger, a A&B barrel in 280Rem threaded for a mouser which was redone in 7-08 and installed. Very first three shot group (shots 3,4 and 5) made one ragged hole. See pic

My park'd 30-06. It's not a coating, it's a chemical etching of the metal. My barrel is Douglas stainless steel, it took the park' but not quite as dark as the CM receiver.

I built a bad weather/ mountain rifle in .308 on a 98 Mauser action, 19-inch barrel with HK G3 flash hider to protect the muzzle, parkerized, sturdy iron aperture sight, synthetic stock, 6 lbs. It has held up well to use in a canoe and kayak, rain, snow for over 20 years.

Thanks Shane. The smith said it wouldn't touch SS. But I take his info with a grain of salt.... Why I only trust him with simple task's and send out serious stuff.
I had assumed it was an etching but on 24hr unless I am 100% sure I don't comment....

Dave

BTW- Dang I like your stuff.........

I'm no expert on different steels, could be than some grades of stainless wouldn't take the parkerizing.

Iron Brigade Armory did mine. Norm put a magnet on the barrel, it stuck, and he said "yep, it'll take parkerizing".

Good point. Most all rifle barrels are made from 400 series Stainless Steel, like 416, which is magnetic.
Didn't realize that many people who think Stainless, automatically think non-magnetic. The only Stainless that I'm aware of that is non-magnetic is 303, and no barrels are made from it. It can't be heat treated.

Don

[quote=MontanaMarine]My park'd 30-06. It's not a coating, it's a chemical etching of the metal. My barrel is Douglas stainless steel, it took the park' but not quite as dark as the CM receiver.

Parkerizing does slightly etch the steel, but it also coats it by depositing manganese and zinc phosphates on the surface that bond to the steel. That’s why it is not used where tight tolerances are required such as triggers, sears, safeties etc.

Rick,

You are correct w/comments on parkerizing (phosphating).

I've done both manganese and zinc commercially and depending on the substrate material, the cleaning methods used, the bath chemistry and surface finish of the bare part, phosphate crystals can range from fine & nice to rough & ugly.

Typically, phosphating is not done on stainless since that's what the tanks used to hold the phosphate (or bluing salts)solution are typically made of.

Never did phosphating on rifle barrels, but on CM, I don't think I'd want it on the bore of my gun.....for reasons cited above, and because there is very little effect of stainless, probably wouldn't affect it much, but I'd still rather not have it there.

Sometimes on metals that don't fully convert enough to "grow" crystals, the surface is still etched.......not a good thing for a rifle bore in my opinion.

MM