Polished Glock Slide Help

[Thedude]

I just bought a used G-21 in great condition, and I want to polish the slide...I've seen Glocks in movies with stainless/polished slides so I thought it was either a trick part or custom work.

I heard you can take the black finish off with a rotary tool and give it a satin type finish, which is what I want to do (Seems easy enough). But I want to know if anyone has done this, and if so, what other measures should I take to ensure a good finish product.

I may even just polish the barrel instead of the slide, but it depends on what you all have to say about this process...Any tips would be helpful, Thanks!

[Bill DeShivs]

If you remove the finish, it will rust. The slide is not stainless. You can have the slide nickeled, chromed, or satin chromed.
Bill

[Thedude]

Do you know of any places that specialize in that sort of work?

[hot sauce]

http://www.robarguns.com/

I had them do my PX4 barrel in NP3. Dont strip the finish off or it will rust.

[JohnKSa]

The black finish is there primarily for cosmetic purposes. The Glock metal parts are treated with tenifer which converts the surface layer of the steel into a very hard, corrosion resistant substance. They are then coated with a black finish.

The black finish CAN be stripped off without damaging the wear and corrosion resistance properties, but the result will be a rather dull grey finish. If you want something more flashy, it's probably better to have it plated.

[wheel]

Removing the black oxide finish does NOT result in a dull grey finish. I used a dremel with white rouge and in 20 seconds I had a mirror finish on the desired area. Now it's true some people don't want a mirror or chrome-looking finish, so I hear that scotch bright pads work well too, giving a satin finish. I may try that myself.

Also, the tennifer treatment is still there, unaffected by such mild things as polishing. Tennifer goes relatively deep into the metal. Polishing will not cause rusting or anything else. The worst it can do is cause the sun to reflect in your eyes :D

[JohnKSa]

Removing ONLY the black oxide finish DOES result in a dull grey finish.

Polishing off the black oxide finish AND the tenifer treated surface underneath it will result in a polished steel look such as you describe. Not only does that remove the corrosion resistance properties of the slide, it also removes the surface hardening provided by the tenifer thus resulting in accelerated wear.Tennifer goes relatively deep into the metal. The tenifer treatment only extends a very tiny depth into the metal (0.0016" to 0.002") and can be removed with abrasive polishing.

It is possible to get a polished metal look by polishing the tenifer, but since it can be removed by abrasive polishing, I'm not sure how you could tell whether you've polished the tenifer or polished it OFF.

The scotch brite pads are not likely to remove anything other than the black finish, but a dremel with abrasive rouge is another story.

[ShipWreck]

Hard chrome the slide w/ a matter hard chrome..


www.trippresearch.com

With return shipping, it will be about $115. Then, it will be wear proof. Hard chrome will be more resistant to holster wear than the stock Glock black finish. Unless U scratch it with a metal object or drag it across the concrete, it won't mar.

Here are 3 I have done:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/mistershipwreck/chromewalther1.jpg

[wheel]

Removing ONLY the black oxide finish DOES result in a dull grey finish.

Polishing off the black oxide finish AND the tenifer treated surface underneath it will result in a polished steel look such as you describe. Not only does that remove the corrosion resistance properties of the slide, it also removes the surface hardening provided by the tenifer thus resulting in accelerated wear.

The tenifer treatment only extends a very tiny depth into the metal (0.0016" to 0.002") and can be removed with abrasive polishing.

It is possible to get a polished metal look by polishing the tenifer, but since it can be removed by abrasive polishing, I'm not sure how you could tell whether you've polished the tenifer or polished it OFF.

The scotch brite pads are not likely to remove anything other than the black finish, but a dremel with abrasive rouge is another story.

I agree removing the black oxide with a scotch-brite pad or similar wil result in a grayish finish. But I have to disagree with some of your other comments:

- If as you say use of rouge removes the tennifer, then why is it that when I later use scotch-brite on such a polished surface the gray satin finish returns? Seems to contradict the notion that the tennifer was removed in the first place.

- You really believe that a few seconds of use of the finest rouge on a felt wheel can remove 1-2mils of steel? It may sound like a small amount, but consider that 40 mils is 1/4 inch. If you were right, after 20 polishings (about 1-2 minutes total with the dremel) I would have removed 1/4" of metal. Clearly not right.

- There are many others who have polished in a similar manner, some which have had their guns subsequently exposed to harsh conditions for long periods of time. I've never heard of anyone experiencing corrosion of any kind.

- The scotch-brite pads IMHO are MUCH more agressive than the rouge. They have to be used very gently, because even the 2nd finest grade will easily cause visible scratches. They are much more aggressive than the red or white rouge that I use.

[Bill DeShivs]

Dremels have ruined more guns than any power tool. You can not get a consistent polish using a Dremel on a large, flat surface. The wheel does not hav a large enough contact area. Attempting to remove a finish without applying another finish, except on stainless guns, is pure ignorance.
Bill

[wheel]

I have not used a dremel on a very large surface, such as a slide. But I have used it on small parts (like internal trigger parts etc) and things like the flat areas on a Glock barrel (the barrel hood), and it was VERY easy to get good results. I agree on large surfaces it makes sense to use a tool with a larger surface contact.

By comparison, I found it very hard to get consistent results using hand-held scotch-brite pads.

[Bill DeShivs]

Whether metal looks gray or not depends entirely on the surface finish. Most Scotchbrite pads seem to be in the 320-600 grit range. Polishing with the same grit sandpaper will give the same gray results. Steel looks whiter the more polished the finish is.
Bill

[wheel]

- You really believe that a few seconds of use of the finest rouge on a felt wheel can remove 1-2mils of steel? It may sound like a small amount, but consider that 40 mils is 1/4 inch. If you were right, after 20 polishings (about 1-2 minutes total with the dremel) I would have removed 1/4" of metal. Clearly not right.

Surprised nobody chewed me out on this. 40 mils is 1/25 inch, not 1/4 inch. I somehow flipped this upside down and backwards in my head the other day.

But even so, there's no way that I'm taking off 1-2 mils of steel in 10 seconds with a slow speed dremel and a felt wheel.

Guess this thread's pretty much dead at this point anyway.