Anyone do parkerizing in Nashville area?

[Whisper]

I have a gun restoration project going on and need someone to do some parkerizing.  I took the gun to one of the large local stores here in Nashville and they not only informed me that they don't do parkerizing or bluing, they claimed no one in Middle TN is doing it.  No one does anything but durakote or cerakote, they said.

Can this be true?  No gunsmith in Middle TN does bluing or parkerizing?

Thanks,

Whisper

[billmeek]

These guys in Loretto (southern middle TN) do bluing.  Not sure about parkerizing.

http://ironhorsegunworks.com/gunsmithing.html

[whiskeydeltatango]

Whisper,

Did you ever get anywhere with this? I'm doing some work on my 1911 and need it refinished.

I see Brownells has an at home kit...

[Whisper]

WDT, I didn't find anything locally.  There's the guys in Loretto that billmeek mentioned, and I found a guy in Memphis, but no one around Nashville.  Also, I can't find a local gunsmith who does bead blasting and seems confident of what he's doing.  Maybe I need to start training for a new career....

Cheers,

Whisper

[whiskeydeltatango]

I'm not having much luck either. I'd be happy to go in on some finishing supplies when I get my money back from the gov.

[OldIronFan]

https://mg34.com/product/home-parkerizing-kit-manganese/

It is a fairly simple process. Just make sure your metal finish is even and clean. When you blast make sure you do not have texture differences across the surface (too little or too much blasting in one concentrated area). Handle the part with nitrile gloves out of the blast cabinet and get a good wash in acetone or denatured alcohol to make sure all media and oil are off the parts. 
Dip in oil after you pull it and rinse it from the mag phos solution. 

If it is non stainless / ferrous steel you should be able to get a nice fairly deep matte black. 
I have done a few barrels and some old steel scope rings with good results. 

[whiskeydeltatango]

Thank you for the info. Any recommendations on a Blast Cabinet and compressor pairing? Seems like blasting takes serious CFM.

[peejman]

24 minutes ago, whiskeydeltatango said:

Thank you for the info. Any recommendations on a Blast Cabinet and compressor pairing? Seems like blasting takes serious CFM.

The best blast cabinet you can get is someone else's. 

[OldIronFan]

22 minutes ago, whiskeydeltatango said:

Thank you for the info. Any recommendations on a Blast Cabinet and compressor pairing? Seems like blasting takes serious CFM.

It does take some serious CFM and it takes dry, dry, dry air. If you do not have dry air you will eventually have issues with media flow. The media gets damp and tried to clump up on you. 

A typical 60 gallon 5 to 6hp 220v compressor should handle house hold project blasting. If you were talking commercial or doing lots of continuous blasting it would take a lot more. 

I do all mine at work where we have a nice industrial screw compressor and a refrigerant dryer. It saves me the floor space at home that would be taken up by a cabinet. 

[OldIronFan]

2 minutes ago, peejman said:

The best blast cabinet you can get is someone else's. 

He ain't lyin....

[xtriggerman]

I bought one similar to the $129 one back when they were well under 100 bucks. I cut an 8' hole in the side and screwed a plastic pail over the hole and that gave me the width for barreled actions. You need at least about 90 psi at the gun but 125 is faster and deeper penetrating.  Never use a high rpm oil less compressor to sand blast since they inherently make alot of condensation water that you cant filter out. A slow RPM oil crank compressor is the only way to go.  I use an older Sears 5hp 20 gallon unit for every thing. The first one I had like it wore out after about 20 years so I stayed with that model. God knows who's making them now.... 

Search Results For "Sand Blast" (harborfreight.com)

I used to do lot of 2 tone blueing by using heavy masking tap over the polished area and expose the areas to be basted like revolver sighting tops and cylinder flutes. At that point, you lower the pressure a bit and dont blow into the tap edge but away from it. A revolver done in + polish with matt high lights is really nice.  Reason why you dont see many doing blueing is the mess you have with it. Especially the dead salts disposal. Brownells sells an entire kit of stuff to process the caustic dead salts into something that can be safely dumped onto the ground.  I bought that park kit from Mg34 and thought to set up a handgun sized  tank set up but havent the time to do it yet. 

[Seanrenshaw]

Anyone use the folks in Lorreto for bluing?  I’m finishing up a 1911 build and want to having it hot blued. Prefer to use someone in the general area versus shipping it cross country.

[Jdubb1977]

Following this topic to see if any good refinishers pop up. I have a Benelli M2 that could use some work as it’s been a hunting gun for many years. It’s an interesting situation since the barrel is parkerized and the receiver is anodized. 

[Whisper]

2 hours ago, Jdubb1977 said:

Following this topic to see if any good refinishers pop up. 

I hope you have better luck than I did.  I never found anyone while I lived in Nashville.