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Parkerizing over existing blue on Kimber

1221 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Metal Smith, 
Ned Christiansen
Just in case this is of interest to anyone... just had a job where the customer wanted his Kimber checkered on the frontstrap, and for me to send it back to him as-is, he would cold blue it. I kinda hate to do that as you know it's going to be a rust-o-matic, and although he said he was not concerned with cosmetics, well, I just hate to send out something that is not finished and will not look and perform 100%.

This gun had the standard matte blue on it from Kimber, looks like it was blasted with large beads. Anyway, since I was Parkerizing something else anyway, I masked off the Kimber and blasted only the frontstrap and underside of the frame, up to the end of the dust cover, figuring that whatever happened, at least the delineation between the two would look good. What did happen was, the Parko "took" everywhere, almost imperceptibly less-so where the blueing was still intact. At least now the thing has a decent protective finish on its most rust-prone area.
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#2 ·
Ned
That is very intersting. I just parkerized two guns this weekend and have never not stripped all the blueing off first. Now I am going to have to try this myself. Might be a quick way to cover up and fill in where I milled sights, frontstraps etc.. Without much work, thanks for the insight Ned.


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Chris from va
 
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Metal Smith

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#3 ·
Hi Guys, I also heard Kimber has been using Stainless steel on frames that should blued steel frames and finishing with some sort of black oxide to give it a blued look, these won't blue or parkerize, I also heard complaints after bead blasting in time they turn a dull grummy looking gray, Pete
 
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