REFINISHING

The following is the most descriptive written paper on the basics of weapon refinishing ever offered to the consumer. It is designed to answer 95 percent of the questions you might have about what we do.  We have taken great pains to explain why we are different and offer more than just metal plating. It also serves to save you money and time. 

Phone calls cost us both. We are a highly skilled, labor intensive business and the telephone is the number one distraction. On the other hand it is better than email if you have many questions. If we had to hire additional staff to answer questions we would have to raise the price of doing business. In addition, we have very highly skilled technicians who have to produce a certain volume for us to stay competitive.

We can't be working on your gun if we are on the phone with you. We welcome your calls but we try to maintain a fast turnaround in a market that changes daily.

Our business is unique.  We do not do bumpers, motorcycle parts, faucets or other household items......with the exception of golf clubs, that's our other downfall, we like to play once in a while. Thus we plate weaponry exclusively and the occasional five shot, nine iron... we are working on a single shot nine iron and we expect to have a complete sellout when we announce it...

TYPES OF FINISHES AND SURFACE TREATMENTS

These are the two major categories of finishes we offer. They are either  "Plated" or "Applied" finishes.  Plated finishes are just that.  Metallic particles applied through electricity to bond to the basic metal or alloy of the firearm.  Applied finishes are sprayed onto the firearm and cured or hardened by heat.  It's that simple....sure if you're an alchemist.
Below are the finishes we apply. Click on the one you are interested in and we'll give you additional information.

Plated Finishes

• Plated finishes of any kind offer the greatest wear resistance and a very high degree of corrosion resistance. 

• Most plated finishes have hardness ratings greater than the base metal they are applied to. And offer superb corrosion resistance in the 100 salt test level.

All of our plated finishes, except Black Chrome, are available in three levels of surface texturing, or luster. They are Matte, Brushed and Bright Finishes.  Due to the tight tolerances of firearms, we must prepare the part prior to plating to the level of polish we want after the plating is applied. Our plate will "mirror" the finish below. The Brushed Chrome is exaggerated for explanative purposes. Matte finish looks almost like the background of the page you are looking at.  Obviously all computer screens cannot duplicate the exact pictures we are trying to show you but this should give you the simple differences you can expect to see.

Brushed finishes are skillfully created by the application of a 400 greaseless grit and buffer wheel combination applied by the technician. If you were to look at it under a powerful magnification, it would appear similar to the picture. Only our most skilled technicians do the brush finishes. It is our most popular. Most of the actual gun pictures on this site are the brushed chrome look. There are combinations available of some surfaces brushed and other parts of the same piece matted. Brushed finishes have a brighter sheen but are not as reflective as you might think.  Mirror finishes are just that, very labor intensive involving many steps and expense. It is a lot of painstaking work and again only a highly skilled technician is allowed to do mirror finishes.

We use both chemical and manual methods such as buffing and sanding to prepare the metal for finishing. We have to remove the old finish and make sure the surface is properly prepared to accept and bond to the new finish.  The plated finishes like chrome easily restore the dimensions. Proper preparation includes the texture, acidity, or neutralization, cleanliness, flaw removal, parts fit, and a hundred other things....

The most common surface finish is Matte since we get a lot of rusted or blued guns looking for an uplift.

MORE ON MATTE
In other words, you cannot plate firearms as you would plate a bumper. Bumper Chrome would probably peel off. It's a totally different process.  Bumpers are plated using multiple-layers of plate to fill the flaws which cuts down on the hand labor involved in getting to your final finish. Our standard Matte finish is used on certain areas of guns for glare reduction as with the top of the slide on a .45.  Also it is very popular on smaller concealed weapons.  It's very durable, just not as pretty as the brushed look.

REVIEW  Four Levels of Finishes - Matte "As Is" - Matte - Brushed - Bright

Matte "as is" finish.  Generally it is used on older, distressed or corroded weapons where too much metal removal would not be a good idea. Offshore fisherman or backwoods trekkers send us their working but horrible looking older revolvers and simply want a durable finish that will be exposed to the outdoors and don't want the weapon rusting up again.  Think of it as a "sort of a budget friendly simple refinishing for tackle box guns".  

Matte Finish First we strip off the old finish.  Our normal procedure is to remove flaws prior to final blasting.  We use a mixture of fine and medium glass beads for our matte finishes which adds to the otherwise flat look of bead blasting.

Brushed finishes are final polished with a 400 grit greaseless compound. Again this is after flaw removal and preparatory bead blasting have been performed and has a subdued luster.  I personally prefer the brush finish on my personal handguns because it is the easiest to maintain and requires a minimum of metal removal to create on firearms that have not been abused, or roughly manufactured, like Military Spec firearms.

Bright finishes are the most difficult to accomplish correctly and have a mirror bright luster.  Extensive working of the metal is required with multiple grit sizes and polishing compounds.  Each successively finer grit should be cross cut to ensure full removal of the previous grit size.  Otherwise you can get the final bright and find lines you have remove taking you back through the process several levels of grit size. This is very labor intensive and requires personnel with a high level of skill and experience. 

MORE ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Clients have requested combo bright finishes where the sides of the pistol are bright and the rounds are a dull matte finish.  We can do this type of texturing perfectly on a semi auto slide that has a sharp edge between the flat and rounded surfaces, but, cannot do this on the frame.  

Do to the configuration of the final bright polish wheels and the amount of pressure that has to be applied to get the steel bright, the matte areas have to be done after the bright polish to avoid over run on the matte with the bright polishing wheels.  While we can tape off the flat surfaces of most slides perfectly it is next to impossible to accomplish on a frame do to all the curved areas.  

The firearms manufacturers do this by clamping a padded frame to each side of the frame being textured with the blaster.  Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of having extra frames available for all the different firearms manufactured.  Even 1911 Colt Style pistols vary in configuration of sections of the frame from manufacturer to manufacturer.  So at AP&W if you request bright finishing on your firearm we will matte the top and rear of the slide and the top rear of frame only.  This gives the shooter a totally non-reflective sighting surface.  

Please realize that bright plated surfaces show finger printing and smearing of lubricants dramatically.  So make sure when handling your bright polished, or plated firearm you keep a rag handy to wipe it down.  Personally, I own six bright polished firearms. These handguns are display presentation, or collectibles, not pieces I use very often. When bright polishing is done the sharp edges of lettering and logos will always have a slight break to it and cannot be avoided.  Most people wouldn’t even notice it, but, it is there and as a client of AP&W you should be made aware of this.  Lastly, bright polished firearms show flaws dramatically.  Extreme care and extra maintenance is required to keep these finishes looking their best.

UNEXPECTED SURPRISES

Only when a weapon is stripped and disassembled, do you get a chance to see all the little things you merely glanced over or the wonderful surprises the manufacturers have left us.  Here are a few of those encounters that we call "making our day".  That's when we call you to let you know what we found.

1. Flaws in the metal just below the surface that only show after striping. Sometimes this pops up under a Nickel Plated gun or a firearm that was welded or heat treated.
   

2. The steel wants to have an “orange peel” effect when we get to the final finish. Usually caused by the raw metal blend of steel or aluminum having imperfections.
    

3. Rough surface firearms can require re-engraving of weak lettering, or serial numbers.  This can run your bill up dramatically.  We have our own four thousand dollar Pantograph machine and can come close to matching most lettering.  We also have several of the more popular logos like S&W, Colt, RUGER and Walther, but, not all of them.
    

4. BLASTED FINISHES: While we offer blasted finishes without prior flaw removal at a reduced price, we do not recommend or warranty them. At AP&W, all bead-blasted final finish surfaces go through complete flaw removal (cutting stage) prior to final blasting, so machine marks, casting flaws, prior pitting and abuse marks are kept to an absolute minimum.  Without this process, the flaws would be amplified after plating. While our prices are not the cheapest, you get what you pay for (and then some) at AP&W. The procedures described above are not standard practice with most of our competitors whether they charge more or less than we do. 
   
    ERRATA
   

1. We do not plate pot metal, period.
   

2. EXTRA CHARGE: Minor flaw removal is included in our base pricing. If a firearm is heavily flawed, extra time and highly-skilled labor are required to correct this condition. Extra charges for restoration-type work are $60.00/hr. 
   READ: Incidentally, some  firearms currently being manufactured are leaving the manufacturer with virtually no polishing or flaw removal prior to the factory-applied coating.  In some instances a heavy coat  of Polymer PAINT is applied to hide the flaws, in others  a heavy coarse blasting media like aluminum oxide is used prior to the bluing process. An example of the first is Beretta Pistols and the latter is Desert Eagle.  Cost effective for them, labor intensive for us to remove. 
    

3. IPSC and other action shooting sports have created a need for extra charges due to the added number of parts and the complexities of dealing with compensators, scope mounts and numerous other add-ons. Minimum additional charge for full house race guns is $25.00. Please refer to the "Extra Charge" section for specific pricing on these pistols.
   

4. STRIPPING ...of plating or paint requires expenses for extra man hours, chemicals and waste treatment. There is no extra charge to strip bluing.
   

5. Note on SIGs, Browning's...On late model SIG stainless guns, they have been using a hardening process similar to GLOCKS Tennifer finish. The reason for this case hardening is so that the slide and the stainless frame don't start to gall. When we get a SIG top in to refinish or chrome to make it more durable we can on only bead blast and chrome it. The Browning lineup of pistols is also finished in this manner due to their hardening.
   

Metalworking is both a science and an art, but we are not magicians even
though some of our customers have mentioned that on occasion. 
 
  CLICK HERE FOR REFINISHING PRICE LIST