Polishing nitrided action

[Dildobaggins]

Anyone ever polish a nitride action? I understand nitriding is not a color but a reaction. I saw on another forum that someone polished a nitride action, and it was awesome. My nitrided action is wearing in spots and I'd like to just polish it to a mirror finish.

Anyone ever do this? What process did you use or what did you do?

Thanks fellas.

 

[iceng]

Polishing should be done prior. Nitriding (depending on the type, theres lots) is a micron thin layer which chemically alters the top layer, to a certain depth.

Polishing too much will remove this layer. Natural wear over time also does this.

It is causing you hang ups or issues, or do you want a visual mirror finish on it ?

 

[Dildobaggins]

Polishing should be done prior. Nitriding (depending on the type, theres lots) is a micron thin layer which chemically alters the top layer, to a certain depth.

Polishing too much will remove this layer. Natural wear over time also does this.

It is causing you hang ups or issues, or do you want a visual mirror finish on it ?

Nope, functions fine. Just more for appearance. From what I gather it's like .0005 thick, but haven't found anything on the web for a way to remove it.

 

[Yondering]

Nope, functions fine. Just more for appearance. From what I gather it's like .0005 thick, but haven't found anything on the web for a way to remove it.

Why would you want to remove the nitriding? It's not there for looks, it's for function (wear resistance, lower friction, and corrosion resistance).

If you want the color to be uniform, parkerizing (which you can do at home with pretty minimal equipment) will bring it back to black again. I've done this on a handful of my Glock slides; the color isn't as durable as the original finish but it works and is easy to do. Don't abrasive blast first, just degrease and parkerize it. I know some people worry about "hazards" because it involves "chemicals", but honestly if you can follow directions and cook a pot of spaghetti noodles without burning yourself you can parkerize. Just get a cheap stainless pan to dedicate to parkerizing; don't use the wife's good stuff because it'll leave deposits in the pan.

Another option is cerakote, but IMO abrasive blasting off the nitrided layer to apply cerakote is a step backwards in functionality.