Ceramic Polymer Vs. (Paints and Powder Coatings)
Bob Cogan: I resisted bringing these finishes on line for quite a few years. It was due to the problems we had seen on firearms that had been done by other companies with Teflon, or Epoxy Coatings. Some of these home brew finishes involved cooking the Teflon in your kitchen stove. (Not a smart health move)

We work daily with vicious chemicals and have to observe many safety precautions and we caution you about fooling with these bottles of eBay magic that promise a lot and may deliver more than what you bargain for. There was one report of a refrigerator being shot by an errant bullet from a revolver that was al-dente. Explain that one to your wife.

These problems mainly revolved around the application of coatings that were too heavy. The theory of a little is good, a lot is better does not apply here. We constantly get firearms in that need industrial stripping.

Thus the overage causes function problems. Also the softness of the coating wore off easily and exposed the bare uncoated base metal. Back to ground zero and Mr. Rust. We built and maintain our own equipment for the application of these products and we have nothing that looks like a kitchen stove.

We do the whole process differently. At AP&W we plate the larger parts of the firearm first with Nickel and then lightly re-blasting the Nickel surfaces before applying the Polymer Finish. Also, because Nickel Plating would protect the internal areas of the firearm from corrosion, especially with minor lubrication most shooters apply, there was no need to coat the inside areas extensively with the Polymer.

This procedure eliminated one source of tolerance problems and the inevitable exposure of the base metal due to holster wear. Due to the variety of plated finishes, all small parts and pins are plated, not painted. This gives AP&W clients the best of both worlds.