The quality of finishes like Cerakote are heavily dependent on the quality of the prep work, at least if you’re talking about single color, non-“artistic” jobs where obviously individual technique becomes more important—though, technique does come into play even with single color coatings to get good, consistent finishes with the right texture/thickness.

A reputable company is really one that just takes their time and pays close attention to properly doing prep work, using the right equipment, etc., doing a good job of cleaning/degreasing, disassembling, etc. to acheive a good finish.

Like many popular DIY things—what has happened is that the market has become saturated with guys that want to buy the cheapest used airbrush on Craigslist, blast your shit with playground sand in the cabinet they made out of old plywood and 2x4s, don’t know or don’t care to properly disadsemble your parts, don’t clean or degrease properly so the paint doesn’t stick correctly and starts to chip and peel, don’t know how to mix paints and solvents, causing orange peel effects, drips, and pools... aaaaand, will happily take your money and then proceed to tell you it’s your fault when they screw it up.

That’s not to say that all small refinishers are like this—but there are enough of them out there to make it extremely important to carefully vet refinishers, and why reputation goes such a long way when selecting a refinisher.

Or, you can decide all of this is way overboard for a gun you’re going to beat up anyways, and decide it’s easier to just rattle can all the things.



~Augee