Home› Main Category› General Firearms
Gene L
Posts: 12,815 Senior Member
Stainless, blue, or nickel....your choice
Gene L
Posts: 12,815 Senior Member
In handguns. Which do you choose? For sake of argument here, "blue" is traditional blue, and is anything other than nickel or stainless. .
I've got or have had all three. Stainless is great, got one gun (S&W 3" Model 65) and requires a lot less maintenance than others. But I'm not sure I prefer it. I've only had one SS handgun, two in nickel....come to think of it all my handguns are blue. So maybe I'm prejudiced.
Nickel to me is the best looking, if a bit flashy, which is OK, if that's what you want. I find maintenance on nickel a bit more demanding than blue, since I tend to under-maintain it. Especially on older guns, many of which have flaking nickel caused by oxidation (I guess) beneath the finish.
Stainless what can you say? A little oil on the innards, applied judiciously, and you're golden.You'd think SS would be the primary choice of most people in handguns and iI's got a lot of good characteristics going for it. An excellent choice all-round, and it seems to be by far the most popular choice in revolvers.
However, these new finishes like the finish on Glocks and Sigs and a lot of other recent handguns present a challenge to SS in terms of durability. I don't know who offered it first, but I tend to think Gaston Glock. At least that's the first firearm I saw finished that way. And I think it's taken off...much cheaper and more durable than conventional nickel or traditional blue.
I don't know, but I think I'd be hard pressed to find a new nickel handgun. It's a finish that's pretty well out of style. Or a "traditional" blue for that matter.
What's your choice? Would it play a part in your choice of a new gun?
Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.
Replies
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
Bluing is pretty when it's new. That's about all I can say for it. It takes too much work to produce to a decent standard anymore, and part of the reason antique guns in good condition command the prices they do is that the finish doesn't hold up to what guns are supposed to be used for. Keeping a blued EDC pretty is a part time job all by itself.
I had a retired guy come in to qualify a year or two back. He used to work on the range as an instructor WAY back in the day and brought in the old blue Smith 59 that was his duty gun. That gun was special because even though it was maintained in perfect mechanical condition and had ZERO signs of ever being allowed to rust, the gun was worn maybe 80% WHITE from having been drawn, holstered, and carried so much. That pistol was so far outside the cancerous norm for blued guns that actually get used, I felt like I'd seen Bigfoot riding a unicorn.
Parkerizing. . .I like it A LOT. A bit antiqueish compared to tenifer/melonite/DLC, but good stuff all the same.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Nickle is a bit flashy for my plain tastes. It holds up well if properly maintained.
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I've never cared for nickle finish, but my ex-boss owns a nickled Colt Diamondback in 22LR I tried to buy from him for almost 30 years. He never would sell, and best I can tell it would sell for upward of 5K today, if not more. That's probably my only grail gun and it's pretty evident I'm not gonna get it.
So....stainless for me, I guess.
Mike
N454casull
I have two guns that we’re done the old way. My Python which is just magnificent and my Remington Rand which looks like it’s dipped in blue black crude oil.
Merry Christmas.
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
Not if it comes from the factory that way. I believe nickel was an attempt to save the gun from rusting, but being flashy didn't hurt. Apparently, it worked. A whole lot of revolvers in the early 20th century were nickel. You won't see many early blue I frames.
they LOOK great, but function wise, SS is better for what i want and do.
Nickel. No way. But i do have some nickel guns since i was in the collecting mode and that finish was part of the collection. But if i had a choice, no way it would be in my safe.
Ive gotten lazy in my older years and when i was younger i would regliously clean my gun(S) after every outing. If it was the last shoot for the year, i would strip them down and clean it that way, then put them away until. But i began to think what i was doing was to wear out those toys by disassembling them. Not field strip, but disassemble. I did learn alot by disassembling them, but in the end i quit doing it.
I also quit doing my cleaning after a shoot. Sometimes i would only shoot 1 mag if i was taking a noob out and if i took out 10+ guns and they only shot 1 mag through it wasnt worth it to clean them like i used to do.
But thats where i found that SS is nice. I can clean or not. Most of the times i would just wipe down and the lube the important parts.
On my blued guns i got so carried away that i rubbed long and hard enough to wear some spots thin. Once i noticed this, i quit doing it and left well enough alone. after all it was just cosmetics.
others my have a say in my lack of cleaning but its how i do things now. My SD piece is a GP100 blued revolver and it does get cleaned. The blueing is also thinned on it since its been cleaned so much but it will also go without cleaning if its only had 1 cylinder full. If any gun has been out in the rain or shot when its wet, they all get an airing out and cleaning.
but for the most part i love SS for function, blued for looks.
- Don Burt
But, overall, stainless wins.