[Texas_XD]

What exactly are they finished in? I thought I'd add my own personal touch to an all black weapon by polishing the barrel hood. Just NORMALLY helps add a neat touch and MOST barrel hoods stratch after use anyway.. right? This is driving me nuts! I start to get it to bare metal, hit it with a touch of Mother's polish and it blackens it back up?!? I get it almost there again so I use a touch of gun oil to wipe it down to clear out residue and poof! Blackens it again?!? :evil: I dabbed on some Outer's Rust and Blue Remover, and I'll be damn if it didn't blacken the bloody hood AGAIN! :-x

 

[Kost]

Leave the finish on the barrel

The slide is made of stainless steel, then its black coated, not sure if its Melonite. FN calls it a matte black industrial tool finish. If it was mine, I would leave the finish intact.

I recently bought a H&K USPF .45, 98% condition w/500 rnds on it, the owner had polished the blue off the barrel hood to a mirror look, it reflected light so much and looked so bad, I had the whole top end done in Cobra Chrome by Tripp to fix it. Slide, barrel, and slide stop are now hard chromed.

 

[Texas_XD]

Re: Leave the finish on the barrel

The slide is made of stainless steel, then its black coated, not sure if its Melonite. FN calls it a matte black industrial tool finish. If it was mine, I would leave the finish intact.

I recently bought a H&K USPF .45, 98% condition w/500 rnds on it, the owner had polished the blue off the barrel hood to a mirror look, it reflected light so much and looked so bad, I had the whole top end done in Cobra Chrome by Tripp to fix it. Slide, barrel, and slide stop are now hard chromed.

A bit late now, lol. I'll get it eventually I guess. Just never had one that responded like this to my normal removal. I don't think it's melonite though as it removes/thins pretty easy with a bit of effort. Are the barrels SS too or does no one know for sure? I do know under the finish the hood is pretty rough, lots of machining marks.

 

[lastmanstanding]

FNH web site states the barrels are "hammer forged". Maybe someone can elaborate more on this. As far as the finish I prefer to leave mine as is. I am sure that if you remove the finish on any gun you will find machine and tooling marks underneath. Which is why they finish them.

 

[Kost]

FNP barrel is ordnance grade carbon steel. Ordnance grade carbon steel is white/silver in appearance, it is finished to prevent rust. Bluing is actually a controlled rust process - done with bluing salts.

 

[Texas_XD]

FNP barrel is ordnance grade carbon steel. Ordnance grade carbon steel is white/silver in appearance, it is finished to prevent rust. Bluing is actually a controlled rust process - done with bluing salts.

I know, but I've successfully done it multiple times on everything from 1911's to XDs and never had an rust issue. But I tend to keep up with my firearms rather well if I do say so myself.
This is just an unusual finish, even the oils from your finger tips turn it instantly a smokey black again. The more oil you use the blacker it gets. Or any metal polishes etc. I got cocky from past good luck and am starting to regret screwing with it at this point. :evil: I may just end up gun-koting it back to black and never worry with it again. It DOES give me hopes for holster wear though. My XD40 I use in local comps and showed lots of wear after the 1st match I used it in. If this barrel hood is any indication, shouldn't be an issue carrying it anytime soon.
Guess it's time to move on to molding a kydex holster or 3 for it. About out of black though, but have 2 sheets of red left... thinking hybrid for this, leather backing with belt slide slots cut :shock:

 

[Kost]

Sounds like the black finish FN uses on the FNP series is an amazing one for protection - its good to hear good report like this one!

 

[gunshow11B]

Id like to see FN use a melonite treatment rather than stainless steel. the newer XD pistols have it and Glock has a simlar "tennifer" treatment.
'

 

[dahahn]

FNH web site states the barrels are "hammer forged". Maybe someone can elaborate more on this. As far as the finish I prefer to leave mine as is. I am sure that if you remove the finish on any gun you will find machine and tooling marks underneath. Which is why they finish them.

Swords (old ones) were hammer forged. It just means they take a piece of metal and pound it into a barrel, instead of cutting it with tools. I was pretty sure that that's what it was, but wanted to double check myself (or risk looking like an ass), and found this.

Hammer-forging pounds the barrel around a mandrel with the rifling in reverse. A shorter blank is used because the process lengthens the barrel by about 30 percent. Hammer-forging equipment was developed in Germany to produce barrels for MG42 machine guns. Stainless barrels are difficult to hammer-forge because they're too hard. Substituting 410 for 416 stainless is the solution. Hammer-forging is fast but leaves considerable radial stress, which is tough to remove.

http://www.gunsandammomag.com/techside/crown_120804/