Metal Finishes
At RGS all of our metal finishing is carried out in-house by expert metal finishers.
We provide gun finishes for new, vintage, and antique firearms alike.
Below you find some of the more popular finishes we offer.
As it can be confusing as to which finish was, or should be used on particular makes and models of guns, don't hesitate to give us a call. We are always more than happy to answer questions about our metal finishing.
Hot Salt bluing has been with us since prior to WWII. It is still the most common metal finish on most firearms. Our hot blue process can vary in color from a deep shiny black, to a more iridescent blue.
Hot blue is a very versatile and durable gun finish that has a wide application range. Everything from rifles, shotguns, and handguns all have this finish. It is the correct finish for most firearms manufactured during and after WWII.
When you are speaking of hot blue, two common examples of color with this finish are Sako's and Weatherby's. They exhibit a characteristic super "fat" shiny black appearance. And, at the other end would be something like an early Colt Python, which has a very fine "bluish" look to it. This is a very simple classification of this finish, and the detail of the metal polishing prior to finishing plays a significant role in determining the end result and color of the blued part.
Rust Bluing and it's brother Browning are the oldest metal finishes for firearms, with browning being the oldest. These were the first finishes found on early muzzle loading commercial and military arms.
Rust bluing is also one of the toughest and hardest wearing finishes for firearms. It is not uncommon for many firearms 140+ years old to still look great. Of course, those pieces probably have not seen much hard use, and were well cared for.
Rust blue is found on most all early military and commercial firearms. Slow rust blueing is also the go-to finish for many custom rifle builds thanks to it's durability and excellent appearance (when properly carried out).
While not used on American handguns, foreign pistols such as the Broomhandle and Luger do have this finish.
Winchester, Marlin, Colt, those are just a few names that used this finish. In reality it was the basic receiver finish for most manufactures of handguns, shotguns, and rifles. Commonly used till about the turn of the last century.
Case coloring provides a durable hard wearing "skin" to the malleable metal underneath.
This finish is created using heat and mixtures of charcoals with a quenching cycle at the end.
Carbonia bluing is one of the most varied finishes by manufacturers. They all had their own way of doing it, and as such each had a bit of a different look to it. Sometimes its incorrectly called Charcoal bluing. The later is actually it's own style of metal finishing, which predates carbonia.
This finish is created with a rotary retort, carbonia oil, and charcoal. And, just like over a century ago, I would guess the very few that provide this finish probably do it differently as well.
Carbonia blue is typically seen on double action revolvers, rifle and shotgun receivers, along with all the parts of a Colt Single Action minus the frame.
This is a wonderful finish with excellent wearing abilities and great looks.
Parkerizing is a common metal finish which also can be broken down into two subcategories. One being Manganese Phosphate and the other being Zinc Phosphate. Actually a very old finish that did not take off immediately. By WWII this finish had came into its own. For fun Google which type was used on "name your make & model" and you will get a lot varying and almost no definitive answers.
A great finish for durability, and unfortunately outside of military restorations gets passed by more these days. It's unfortunate as a Manganese finish which is hot blued right after phosphating is a great looking and ultra durable finish.
Extra credit trivia: Which automotive engine part was Manganese Phosphated for years before technology changed? Answer in the next paragraph.
Parkerizing is most commonly seen on military firearms of the WWII era, where both handguns and rifles were parked. Answer: camshafts, for it's excellent anti-gall and oil holding properties during break-in.
Coincidentally, that oil holding benefit we talked about above would very easily lead into a massive discussion as to why those old military arms had those cool greenish colors.
The new kid on the block. And I ain't talking about that horrid 90's boy band. Lets just start by saying Cerakoting is a great finish! Now it's not for everybody, and certainly does not belong on an antique restoration (my opinion), but you just can't beat the durability and corrosion resistance of this finish.
Cerakote has the advantage of being any color you'd like it in, and there are some who can do some amazing artwork with this stuff.
This is a very fitting finish for new firearms and many custom guns as well. This finish also pairs really well with the older finishes when executed correctly.