Having done this type of work for a living, I get asked this question a lot. While I admit to being fairly opinionated, it is hard to answer that question without knowing what you plan to coat with it because the various finishes available all have their good points, and obvious weaknesses.
One example is heat resistance. Naturally, if you're going to be finishing a barrel or silencer tube that are going to get very hot, you'll want something that is going to stand up to the heat. And at the risk of hurting some peoples feelings, in those circumstances, the bake on products are the best bar none for general metal treatment because duracoat has a lower heat rating and it will darken and even bubble and peel after you run it hot enough for a while. That's why generally I prefer Norrels and KG Gunkote Moly type of bake finish for metal because they hold up to it better than anything else I have tried, but I am going to say I have never used cerakote because I can see cracks and sometimes chips in the finish of the ceramic coating on my stove, I just worry about long term on a gun that is going to get hot, and vibrate, expand, contract, etc over a period of years. But that is a whole different topic for another discussion I suppose.
But I also realize that you're not going to want to bake your scopes and plastic pieces in an oven at 350 degrees for an hour unless you want a gooey mess when that hour is up, so you'll need something entirely different that can air cure, or at the best, very low heat cure to speed the processing time up to prevent damaging the pieces.
So while these various finish types try to market themselves as the only gun finish you need, it only makes sense to think about how and where you need the finish applied and is entirely feasible to need more than one type of finish per gun to correctly complete the project.
While the link below is a scientific wear test that shows how various finishes hold up to abrasion (blueing, parkerizing, duracoat, moly/gunkote,cerakote, etc), there are other things to consider that aren't covered under the abrasion test you will need to consider for yourself like heat, and corrosion and chemical resistance, but I wanted to post the wear test because I am glad to at least finally see a scientific wear test among the leading finishes to try to answer that question once and for all.
I can't really say the results surprised me because I've known it and been saying it for years from first hand experience, but maybe it will shed some light on the differences the various finishes hold up to normal wear and put some of the disagreements I see online from time to time to rest.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksj-XJzVQik[/youtube]
One example is heat resistance. Naturally, if you're going to be finishing a barrel or silencer tube that are going to get very hot, you'll want something that is going to stand up to the heat. And at the risk of hurting some peoples feelings, in those circumstances, the bake on products are the best bar none for general metal treatment because duracoat has a lower heat rating and it will darken and even bubble and peel after you run it hot enough for a while. That's why generally I prefer Norrels and KG Gunkote Moly type of bake finish for metal because they hold up to it better than anything else I have tried, but I am going to say I have never used cerakote because I can see cracks and sometimes chips in the finish of the ceramic coating on my stove, I just worry about long term on a gun that is going to get hot, and vibrate, expand, contract, etc over a period of years. But that is a whole different topic for another discussion I suppose.
But I also realize that you're not going to want to bake your scopes and plastic pieces in an oven at 350 degrees for an hour unless you want a gooey mess when that hour is up, so you'll need something entirely different that can air cure, or at the best, very low heat cure to speed the processing time up to prevent damaging the pieces.
So while these various finish types try to market themselves as the only gun finish you need, it only makes sense to think about how and where you need the finish applied and is entirely feasible to need more than one type of finish per gun to correctly complete the project.
While the link below is a scientific wear test that shows how various finishes hold up to abrasion (blueing, parkerizing, duracoat, moly/gunkote,cerakote, etc), there are other things to consider that aren't covered under the abrasion test you will need to consider for yourself like heat, and corrosion and chemical resistance, but I wanted to post the wear test because I am glad to at least finally see a scientific wear test among the leading finishes to try to answer that question once and for all.
I can't really say the results surprised me because I've known it and been saying it for years from first hand experience, but maybe it will shed some light on the differences the various finishes hold up to normal wear and put some of the disagreements I see online from time to time to rest.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksj-XJzVQik[/youtube]
