Is the finish needed in stainless steel handguns? Is it an actual protective coating or just for esthetics?



Specific pistol I'm talking about is a sig p226 in stainless steel.

Stainless or not, rust happens. My Kimber TLE II unfortunately had spent a month in my basement and I spent time scrubbing rust spots from under the grips. If you're concerned, finish the metal.

Stainless Steel has used in firearms manufacture has nickel content so that it can be machined. It is the nickel that rusts.

Huh?  Nickel can't rust, it can oxidize, although it rarely does, it cannot form ferric oxide.  The iron in the steel is what actually rusts.  The chromium oxide that forms from the chromium content in stainless coupled with the nickel among other things is what PREVENTS rust.  


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It is stainLESS not stain-NONE.

There are hundreds of alloys of stainless steel, each with its own corrosion properties.

The basic alloy for stainless is from and chromium (minimum around 10-11%) and iron.
Other alloying elements are added to improve corrosion resistance even more, and allow machinability and workability of the  alloy.


The chromium forms a surface layer on the steel that protects the iron.

After machining the steel must be passivated (a dip in acid0 to remove any free iron exposed on the surface from either the material or the tooling used to cut it.
The layer of exposed chromium reacts with the air to form a coating that resists corrosion.

Most (maybe even all) stainless is still subject to chloride attack, and any number of other reactive substances.

The chloride ions in your sweat will attack the stainless used in firearms.


No real finish is required unless you want to further increase the corrosion resistance with something like hard chrome.

The stainless needs a minimum of oil to protect it in daily use form handling.

Just to clarify I'm talking about physical wear an tear. Is the finish needed to protect the frame from premature wear/failure on a sig p226 stainless steels slide rails?

No.  But, as with any handgun, proper lubrication is key.

Stainless will scratch up considerably, but the scratches can be buffed-out with ease.  

A lot of companies are switching to SS even when they are not leaving the metal in the white. (S&W M&P, FN FNX,) are all stainless that has a type of melonite treatment and then are still finished.  I'm sure there is economic and tooling rationale behind it.  Stainless used to be somewhat of a premium in firearms.  Now it seems to be replacing high carbon steel in many cases.

i like stainless

229 sport, 220 sport stock
220st, 220c3compact