Want to "black" hard chrome, need references

MartyK2500

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
278   0   0
Location
Quebec
Hey, my Single stack STI Trojan 40 finally has a few thousand rounds down range!
Which means wear pattern is established, and i can finally get it hard chromed.
I would need references, for a black hard chrome, mirror finish.
I do not know where to start, i have heard rumours that armco uses dark international.
And dark international does not have the materials for a black hard chrome.
Anyone has hints and/or good references as to where to look?
 
no such thing, chromeium is chromeium and thats its colour and it can then be treated with other treatments after to make it black such as Ferritic nitrocarburizing or tennifer exc
 
Call a motorcycle repair fab shop, they black chrome lots of things including exhaust, looks great, I will be doing that to a belgian antique .442 short barrel, gonna call her Black Betty! A performance auto parts place would probably know also!
 
Call a motorcycle repair fab shop, they black chrome lots of things including exhaust, looks great, I will be doing that to a belgian antique .442 short barrel, gonna call her Black Betty! A performance auto parts place would probably know also!

most Biz that are not use too working on guns, don't understand when we say has the be a very thinn build up we mean .00005 not +/- a few thou.
Also you have the be registered with the RCMP and have a BFl to work on guns.
 
Sask farmboy, if it didnt exist i presume Rodger would have told me so instead of saying it's not something he is set up to do.

Bfiles, with armacoat can they tighten tolerances? Is it available mirror finish? Always handy to floss my teeth with my 1911...

Badboybeeson, thats what i presume, being a restricted item icannot bring this just anywhere.

I will look around for another month or so, i have a feeling i will hit a dead end.
 
the element chromium is chrome colour, many processes turn regular chrome black but the chromium itself is not black, I use to make down hole tooling for the oilfield and sent out thousands of chrome/stainless/inconel/stelite/monel/nitronic/hastaloy parts for Nitriding but that is a process that is applied to regular chrome exc, the chrome itself is not black, the surface is coated to make it black. its like saying purple drywall, drywall is white and you can paint it purple if you want but it starts as drywall and is then treated and under a few thousanths of an inch is still regular colour. take any "black chrome" to a buffing wheel and it will be back to regular chrome in seconds

all kind of semantics , its a technicality. I should not have brought it up
 
yea but good info anyway for background information,, my antique is a different category as it is not even considered a firearm, don't even need a pal to own one, but I am sure there must be a place that can and has the authority, or maybe you can get a temporary let, for a one time thing!
Also try rusty wood trading, they may know someone as they do work on old and newer firearms!
 
Will do, making a bit of research on CGn using the search function in gunsmith sub forums, i realize i am not the first one searching for this.
I may have to settle for regular hard chrome, as i like the idea of wear resistance and easy lubrification.
It's just not want i had in mind as far as looks go.
I did find a few motorcycle shops offering the service, they are not licensed for firearms.
 
Back in 2004 I had black-chrome Racing Hart rims on a sports car, I scuffed up one rim pretty badly and a specialty autobody shop repaired it -- the guy matched the original black chrome finish perfectly. He told me he mixed black paint with chrome until it matched then clearcoated it. One thing though is that this guy was good, he worked mostly on very high-end cars.
 
You can get electroplating kits on Ebay, I don't know how the cheap sub $100 dollar ones are or if the expensive are easy...or what the learning curve is but you can plate chrome/nickel/gold/zinc/copper etc, that's pretty neat.
 
I have seen this and was tempted.
Even if the machine would be a higher end one costing much more.
The facts are that i'm not qualified to do this, and do not feel like wasting an ipsc gun that i have now invested 2000+$ into.
 
At this point i have asked Dark International for a deluxe blueing, the kind that should be mirror like.
The 1911 has a low round count still, while wear pattern is established it is still tight.
Training being what it is, i know the gun will start getting rackety in 1/1.5 years from now.
So by then i will either, get it hard chromed and buy black furniture for it, get it black hard chromed if someone opens shop here then, or get myself an SVI built if a certain bonus comes in.
 



From a bath containing chromic acid and nickel salts a silvery deposit results, which is changed to black upon treatment with hydrochloric acid. A second bath contains chromic acid, vanadium salts, and nickel salts. A third contains chromic acid and vanadium salts. Black deposits are obtained directly from the latter two baths.


starts out chromed, then is treated to make it black
 
Back
Top Bottom