Parkerising Service. Your thoughts and feed back

badboybeeson

badboybeeson

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As part of our move back into gunsmithing and building custom guns,we Have been looking at the idea of setting up a professional parkerizing operation.

What are peoples thoughts on this?

What are your experience with other Canadian companies offering this service?

What are your expectations for a cosmetic finish ( we have only ever had it done Comercialy.
and the finish is not that consistent )

What are you exspecting to pay for somthing like a complet rem 870 or mossberg police gun or a 1911/BHP or other type of all steel pistol
Complete m1 or m14?

Small parts min batch?

Turn around time

Please post your thoughts.
 
Not a whole lot of quality parkerizing going on. Where it is being done, it's often in isolation. So, if I wanted a new dovetail cut and refinish, I'd have to send one place for one, and another vendor for the other. This isn't ideal for variety of reasons.

That said, parkerizing takes some work, as it's not the most consistent. Are you thinking black/grey or green?
 
^^
That and i think the parkerizing market has slimmed down with the introduction of cerakote. I had 1 gun done with cerakote that mimics parkerizing and it stands up to the abuse very well.

Parkerizing demand will be very low, probably only going to appeal to people who wa ts to restore an old antique firearms etc to maitain its value.
 
It depends on what finish is desired. I’d want Zinc phosphate if I was going to coat it after, and Manganese if I was going to leave it as-is t coat in oil. As dark as possible.
I have one place in town that does it, so shipping would cost me nothing (but maybe others don’t).
Your ability to gunsmith in addition to coating is a bonus, as my local company strictly does the coating and is in no way a gunsmith. I can get it done very cheaply here, but since they don’t know guns it the value you offer is in the package of gunsmithing combined with parkerizing.
I don’t think that most of the people interested in having their guns parkerized are novices at working on their own guns, but for the more sophistcated ones (m14) and those participating in competitions then you would have a lot to offer.

Sorry I don’t have a $ to put on it. I like that you’re considering offering such a service, I just don’t need it at the time being and I’m fortunate enough to have access to services locally.

When I saw your last offer to cerakote however, I just about slapped myself in the face for getting an alternate coating previously. I would have been way happier to have you cerakote it, but I didn’t know such a good deal was up and coming.

Cheers to you guys for throwing this service out there as an option!

The parkerizing would have to compare favourably to the other options - cerakote, bluing, powder coat, etc. I know these all serve different applications, but I think that those in search of parkerizing probably like that traditional military look and ruggedness but are less concerned with corrosion (in contrast with those wanting cerakote or powder coating).

Would you offer additional coating on top of the parkerizing, or not?
 
It makes perfect sense to diversify your services and product base and especially cool if you do them in production as you have with the Israeli imports. The combo of those two possibilities and having a dark phosphate finish would be very appealing (for me).
 
Yes, parkerizing is appealing. Pricewise, perhaps you could look at the guidelines set by Brownell's and adjust from there. They have a gunsmith price list and it's at least a start point. Parkerizing isn't so bad once you're set up, hardest would likely be the stainless steel tank...the burners are available, thermometers are too. Again, a look into Brownell's stock would show you what I mean. Import of the solution, costly... There used to be a company in Edmonton that had it. Cerakote isn't parkerizing and will always just be baked on paint. I have a Beretta that I'd love to send off for a refinish that has Cerakote, also a Commander length 1911A1. There have been others too in the past.
 
good feed back guys, i think we will do this, its but with the move to the new shop things have gotten behind.
likly be the spring before we do this
simon
 
badboybeeson said:
As part of our move back into gunsmithing and building custom guns,we Have been looking at the idea of setting up a professional parkerizing operation.

What are peoples thoughts on this?

What are your experience with other Canadian companies offering this service?

What are your expectations for a cosmetic finish ( we have only ever had it done Comercialy.
and the finish is not that consistent )

What are you exspecting to pay for somthing like a complet rem 870 or mossberg police gun or a 1911/BHP or other type of all steel pistol
Complete m1 or m14?

Small parts min batch?

Turn around time

Please post your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Parkerizing would be welcome, I have several older military rifles I'd like re-finished (or parkerized in the first place)

Haven't found other Canadian companies yet (but haven't looked that close yet either)

Cosmetic finish should be smooth. Dull gray is fine, but uniform and somewhat smooth at least.

I figure $150 for a barrelled rifle action, $100 for a pistol, $50 for a small batch (1 gun) or $75 for a large batch (2 or more guns) of small parts would not be unreasonable?

Turn around time in the weeks or a few months would not bother me
 
TimberWolf_3063 said:
Parkerizing would be welcome, I have several older military rifles I'd like re-finished (or parkerized in the first place)

Haven't found other Canadian companies yet (but haven't looked that close yet either)

Cosmetic finish should be smooth. Dull gray is fine, but uniform and somewhat smooth at least.

I figure $150 for a barrelled rifle action, $100 for a pistol, $50 for a small batch (1 gun) or $75 for a large batch (2 or more guns) of small parts would not be unreasonable?

Turn around time in the weeks or a few months would not bother me
Click to expand...

Yes thats the kind of price range we would hope to hit, anything more then that gets a bit unfriendly...
its going to happen we just want to do it right.
bbb
 
Both zinc and manganese options would be good. I have my own tank for personal use and would appreciate being able to order some solution from you. There is another Canadian company that does this and sells solution but looks like they're focusing on manganese.
 
badboybeeson said:
Yes thats the kind of price range we would hope to hit, anything more then that gets a bit unfriendly...
its going to happen we just want to do it right.
bbb
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how feasible financially / businesswise it is to offer both...but both manganese and zinc options would be nice for different colours.

If you're only going with one, zinc would probably be better.
 
Just an up date sort of...
we have the fanks being finished off this comeing week.
we are going with just Zink park at this point, so dark gray .
ETA for us is aroud nthe end of april.
will let you know as we start doing our testing.
BBB
 
shaddp said:
Both zinc and manganese options would be good. I have my own tank for personal use and would appreciate being able to order some solution from you. There is another Canadian company that does this and sells solution but looks like they're focusing on manganese.
Click to expand...

Could you give me the name of that other Canadian company? I'm looking for manganese phosphate solution, but I wasn't able to find any available in Canada.
Brownells has what looks like a nice product, but they won't ship it across the border.
Thank you
 
Nick at Vulcan gun redid my Lee enfield when I had it returned it to its original state. I know that he did the blasting there and had it refinished locally. Beautiful job. I can’t say for sure what the cost was to have it done but If you contacted him he would be able to tell you.
 
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