Posted: 5/6/2008 5:27:32 PM EDT
| What kind of steel is a Glock slide made from? Can find the answer anywhere. My son just removed the finish from his Model 32's slide and I'm concerned about rust. He did a nice job and it looks like stainless, but I can't find out for sure. |
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i dont remember specifically the type/grade of steel, but the glock steel is treated in the microscopic level w/ "tennifer" it should not rust, and there should be no worries; pics of the aftermath?  Taken from the Glock FAQ: "What is the tenifer finish? Surface hardening of steel and iron (to improve wear resistance) can be done by either allowing the surface of metals to react with either Nitrogen (nitriding), Carbon (carburizing), Boron (boriding), etc. TENIFER is termed for a chemical bath nitriding process whereby nitrogen is chemically released and introduced into the surface at a suitable high temperature to allow the chemical process to take place. Using the liquid bath techniques, the temperature requires to activate the reaction is about 550 to 580 Celsius. The bath is performed in a molten, nitrogen-bearing liquid containing either cyanides or cyanates. However, cyanide-free liquid has also been used to release Nitrogen and then allow it to react chemically with steel (iron)at the surface (modern techniques). Interestingly, when using the cyanide-free liquid, Tenifer is actually the salt bath nitro-carburing technique because it starts (first reaction) with Carbon-Nitride (CN) and allows it to react with Oxygen (0)to produce Nitro-carbon-dioxide byproduct plus Nitrogen. The simultaneous second reaction takes place when nitrogen (N) is in contact with Iron (Fe) to form FeN (iron-nidride). The tenifer coating "composition" of Glock's steel slide is essentially that of FeN. It is interesting to note that FeN coating is used mainly to increase the surface wear resistance to against galling and wear. The corrosion resistance is also better for iron and conventional steel that are NOT stainless steel. Most stainless steels need not to be nitrided. The reason is stainless steel has chromium to fight against corrosion and rust (this is why we call these material stainless). However, nitriding a stainless steel will almost always lower the corrosion resistance of the stainless steel. This is because the nitrogen will also react with some of the chrominum (Cr) at the surface of stainless steel to form Chrominum-nitride (CrN). Obviously, gas-nitriding is a simpler process (but not necessary cheaper) to form a tough wear resistance coating. In this case, pure Nitrogen gas is chemically reacted with the metal such as iron (Fe) by holding the metal in the Nitrogen gas environment at high temperature allowing the chemical reaction to take place. The true FeN (tenifer) coating has a dull-gray color surface. Definitely, never black. In some applications, FeN coatings can also be polished to give a bright metal finish appearance. [SIGlock] Back To Top " |
| Thanks for the reply. Don't have the technology to post pics. The slide now looks like highly polished stainless steel, the finish is mirror like. I'm concerned about rust, even though he takes good care of his weapons. You'd think GlockUSA would have the info on what the slides are made from, but no. Checked lots of site, no joy. |
i think you are correct mr frens, from all of what i've heard, the metal on the glock is pretty much tennifer bonded throughout--but to what depth, i dont know (i was thinking it was a layer, but it might be the entirity of the metal )
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| Hi guys, I guess I'm not being specific enough. The black finish is GONE. Sandpaper, polishing compound, etc. The outside of the slide is bare metal, bright shiny metal, without any finish. My son polished it to a mirror finish. My question is will the metal rust or corrode? |
No the tennifer itself is in the metal; the black phosphate/park finish that was removed was simply that: an outside matte black protective finish note however, that many other production firearms do NOT come w/ a tennifer like coating underneath the outside finish--instead, the phoshate/park./gunkote/bluing IS the anti-rust agent out of curiosity, why did your son decide to strip off the finish BEFORE researching to determine if his glock would rust? 
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| Thanks for the response. You asked the same question I asked. You should have seen the look on his face when I ask him if the metal was stainless, ha, ha, ha! The only answer I have is that he's 23, impatient, has WAY to much testostrone, easily bored and never needs advice, at least according to him. By the time I found out what he was up to, it was to late. I will say this, it turned out real well, he did a great polishing job. Damn thing looks like a mirror. I don't particular like it, it defeats the purpose of the finish and looks like something a pimp would carry, but to each his own. It's his gun and that's what he wanted. I can't argue that. |
| From reading "The Complete Glock Reference Guide" Glock slides are made from steel stock (doesn't mention what kind of steel) and Tennifer treated. The Tennifer treatment only penetrates the steel 3-10 microns. If the slide's original finish was taken off and the steel was polished to a high luster, I'm sure the Tennifer treatment is long gone which would mean any corrosive protection is gone. |
+1 both mr unicorn and mr mauiblue made a good point however, if your son went bezerk on the sanding, he could have taken too much off...OST for results |
| I'm sure he went below 10 microns. Initial sanding done with 220 grit sandpaper, then 400, then 800, then 2 different levels of polishing compound, and finally Flitz. Wish I could post pics, don't have the equipment. He like the look of my stainless Para CCO, highly polished sides and bead blasted top and copied the style. He used 800 grit paper on top of his Glock to mimic bead blasting effect. Sanded at 45 degrees off axis in one direction, then reversed direction making a cross hatched pattern. I've been thinking about buying a Duracoat set up to do a tactical shotgun. I guess I'll add "Duracoat Clear" to my color selection and resolve this issue. Thanks for everyone's input. |
