green/gray parkerizing

[cetme]

hello is there such a thing as green,or gray parkerizing? it seems ive seen it on a few rifle over the years.if not, park what is it? ive got a couple rifles i want to try it on. not looking for a pretty finish.just uniform,tough.somewhat local to clackamas area + 50 miles max.any ideas really appreciated

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[AMProducts]

Parkerizing comes in two forms... Zinc and Manganese. Zinc is the light grey park, manganese is the charcoal black. Zinc is usually used as a base treatment for powdercoating, duracoating and others. Manganese is usually used by itself. However, you can vary the amount of acid in the bath and get it to come out a more grey color.

If you want the grey/green typically seen on military rifles you probably want to start out with manganese, and then apply some cosmoline and let it sit for a few dozen years. I've been playing around with parkerizing quite a bit lately, when I was researching the topic that's the opinion of most of the restoration guys out there. The green is a result of the cosmoline interacting with the surface. I would be willing to bet that after parkerizing if you were to apply cosmoline as a base oil it would eventually give you that green finish so common to WW2 vintage garandes.

 

[cetme]

thats some good info to go on.now to find someone who does it. thanks

 

[cetme]

along the lines of my post..how far would you have to dissasemble an ak for someone to park it correctly

 

[shoggoth80]

I agree... sock your gun with cosmo after parkerizing. It's the solution I have always heard for getting the greenish tint to your park job.

 

[AMProducts]

along the lines of my post..how far would you have to dissasemble an ak for someone to park it correctly

Typically this requires a complete tear down of the gun, meaning even barrel trunion must be removed, and all parts stripped down. I imagine you could do it with just a large teardown (all of the minor assemblies removed) and then lining the barrel and chamber with a thick waterproof laquer.

What I would actually suggest is just paint it with BBQ paint. Enfields were not parkerized during and after WW2, but rather had a heavy heat resistant paint applied to them. I've done it to a few of my enfields, and it's a pretty easy process.