Who has used either and can you give me strong and weak points of each?

I don't have experience with either. Looking  at their customer base, I would go with the Norrel's. Although their product would look good, Norrel's makes a reference to thier product being performance based verses appearance based.

I don't know about durability, but the Lauer comes in more colors I think, and is much easier to apply when doing it yourself.

i have a receiver that i had Lauer refinish this spring.  i've put over 700rds throught he rifle since then and the finish is still excellent.  all that for $45 and it was mailed back to me in less than a week!

I had Norrell arms redo my Oly upper and lower in his SOCOM flat black. Looks VERY good!! He even took out some bad machining marks that were there from manufacture. Good communication from him during the process too. I have put a couple of small scratches on the upper, but they were my fault. Durability seems to be ok, about like the original finish. Its not scratch proof, but I am very carefull with my ARs. (its a safe queen) Maybe someone else has a good read on toughness, but he did a great job for me.. John

I use Lauer (see "paint AR" thread by meltdown)

EXCELLENT durability and solvent proof.  Price isn't 'low', but very good stuff.

I have tried a few other finishes, but found Lauer to be superior, and they are a very friendly/good-people company.

I have refinished several and only one had a problem, and that was the barrel of a Full-Auto.  Once temp gets above 700 degrees, it kinda burns.

However, I am in the process of getting an oven, so I can use Lauer DuraBake, which will withstand up to 1100 degrees, so will stay 'right' on a 16.

kinda burns? That puppy was [b]smoking[/b]
But with dozens of mags and three guys taking turns ... I wonder what the barrel temp was that day.

to me duracoat seems more rugged than norrel's moly.

From what I understand Norells is the best out there. Some have had good results with Gunkote also.  I went with the Brownells stuff because it was easy to do.


I've used Brownell's Teflon Moly in olive drab a few weeks ago on a stainless Mini-14, a old Remington 870, and a few mags.  All items were cleaned with acetone and preheated before application.

The best results were on the Remington.  It looks really cool.

The stainless Mini was OK.  I really throw that rifle around and it has a few little marred places on it already.  It's holding up well considering.

I refinshed and old 20 rnd AR mag that had no finish.  The teflon/moly didn't do as well on aluminum.  The mag was bright silver though.

It was worth the $30.  

I have used Norrell's finish several times both the semi-gloss and once the flat.  The flat looks very nice.  The semi-gloss brings out every little imperfection so make sure you prep everything very well.  The finish will also hold up to some scratching but it will scratch if you use enough force.  I have found that the finish stays on much longer if you first anodize the part.Also the service from Norrell is great.

Good luck.

Durability is nothing compared to the original finish.  When it comes down to it Norrell's products might be the best paint out there but in the end it is still just paint.  Anodized aluminum (aluminum oxide) is one of the hardest substances known to man.  I'm in the process of setting up my own anodizing line and have learn more then I ever thought I would about the finish on an AR.  To tell you the truth I never even thought that much about it until I looked at my options of refinishing and deciding re-anodizing was the way I wanted to go.