I need to blacken some carbon steel 1911 parts. 'Planned on getting them Parkerized but while I was searching for Parkerizing videos on youtube I ran into a few Black Oxide process videos.
Like this one.
Process almost seems too easy. 9 parts water to 1 part Caswell Plating Black Oxide Concentrate. Soak for a few minutes..... and that's about it.
No heat or complicated processes. Caswell does recommend a sealer.

Also- I've been ordering a few 1911 parts from Fusion Firearms and I noticed they have a Black Oxide finishing service.
I'm sure their process is a bit more complicated- but wow, it looks pretty nice. If I can even come to close to that at home I'd be happy.

So is Black Oxide a viable alternative to Parkerizing?
I read that Black Oxide is not as rust resistant or durable as Parkerizing but I'm looking for some opinions/advice from personal experience if possible.

Nobody ever tried DIY Black Oxide??
Will I be the Arfcom guinea pig......

I haven't tried the black oxide process in my shop; I would imagine it has about the same durability and results as using some of the (better) cold blue processes. The issue I have found, especially with the other-than-hot salts bluing vis a vis black oxide, is that the results are not consistent.

Parkerizing...if you do your part, the results are quite nice and it isn't all that difficult for most people to do. Now, parkerizing as you probably know in and of itself does not protect metal...it's just a way of prepping the metal to "hold" onto whatever anti-corrosion oils or greases gets placed on the metal. It kinda etches the metal, creates microscopic "craters" (for lack of a better term) to hold onto the oils/cosmoline/grease. If you prep the metal correctly, you'll get superior results. It's not as fussy as bluing, and it's more durable than any cold process of bluing or blackening, in my experience.

In all reality, there is no way as of yet to "get around" in any CONSISTENT manner either of the hot processes, be it parkerizing or bluing. It is what it is. The only thing that I've seen come along in the last 20 or so years that yields consistent results other than the aforementioned two is the moly-type coatings, but they are still a hot process to cure, and there is still metal prep that needs to be adhered to for good results.

That's my .02.

Thanks for the input/information. I guess the black oxide cold process looked so tempting because it was easy.
The park process looks fairly straightforward so I'll probably be doing that.

I had a Tanfoglio TA-90 done in black oxide a long time ago. It was done at a chrome plater that did our barrel chroming when I worked at Barrett. The finish looked great.
You do have to stay on top of your oil wipe down periodically as black oxide will rust easier than bluing.