We will help any of you with the Duracoat orders - just let me know what you need and we will add it to our orders. We are also glad to offer advice on the coating process, especially the prep, which is crucial. I can order Cerakote and Gunkote as well, but I do not use it as it requires an oven, and I cannot afford the right kind of oven right now. You can do it in the wrong kind of oven and it will work fine usually, but I won't do anything on other people's weapons that is not done totally right. As far as durability, the three are going to be more or less equal for most people's purposes, with each having certain small advantages over the other two.
I am happy to do the carabiners for you, AlaskaM4, but the finish will probably wear pretty quickly (no matter what finish is used) if they are used hard. I can throw them in when I am already doing those colours.
As far as having someone Duracoat weapons, it is true that the need to have an FFL. However, be careful about who you give it to. We do very little work for AK residents because there have been people here in the past that have done such horrific work that people here don't trust anyone any more. Few professionals do good work, and the majority of the really nice finishes we see are done by individuals on their own weapons. Many "professionals" are just gunsmiths or gunstore owners who see a way to make a quick buck on the side, with no real experience or skill. We really recommend people try it themselves - it's fun and it is pretty easy to get it to turn out well.
Anyway, we created a monster with the Alien Skin Digital, and orders are flooding in, so I have to order more finish soon. Let me know what you guys need and I'll throw it in with the order.