[GPalmer]

Hi Folks,

I haven't seen the blued finish in person and I'm rather curious about how much different it is than the black finish. I can't really seem to find very many pics on the net whose color rendition I trust. This is both appearance and durability wise of the finish. Anyone know anything about this?

 

[153]

Regular p99's are black plastic frames with a "tennifer" finish on the slide, like a Glock. Tennifer is probably used because the underlying steel is so hard it will not take a conventional blue finish like a real German PP or PPK.

"Blue" with respect to gun finishes has been black since WW2.

 

[sniper350]

A blued gun is really a sort of Misnomer.

The finish is a deep mirrored black finish which has a dark bluish tint to it in certain lighting conditions. S&W used to be the king of this type of finish on handguns back in the early days. Some guns "blued" in the 60's and early 70's were absolutely beautiful.

Weatherby and Sako were also some companies that could finish rifles with this unbelieveable deep Blue/Black finish.

But gun makers knew this finish to be very delicate ......... wearing off the barrel of handguns after only a few holsterings. Some of the old Smith & Wesson's will show this wear at the very tips of their barrels. Rilfes seemed to fair better because they were not shoved into holsters all of the time.

As advancement were made to gun finishes .......... Bluing guns all but stopped. Parkerization ........became the next big boy on the block, followed by all the high tech finishes we have today. S&W - on occassion - will make a run of "blued" handguns ........but they don't approach the beauty of the older handguns done long ago by old world gunsmiths.

JF.

 

[thorn]

Also, one should note that Tenifer is not a finish. It's a process, in which the slide is placed in a chemical bath. The result is that the metal becomes extremely resistent to corrosion and rust, because the metallic properties have been altered to inhibit good molecules from merging with bad (foreign) molecules.

Tenifer isn't a surface treatment, applied over the metal... it's impregnated into the metal itself. Therefore, you can then apply a standard coating finish of whatever you like over it... paint, duracoat, etc. Or just leave it unfinished if you like (ie, the P99 QPQ).

I believe that the P99's finish is some type of powder-coat based thing. Glock used to use parkerizing (i think) but now they're using some kind of gloss coat. FWIW, the Glock finish is more scratch resistant than Walther's... but that's not due to issues of Tenifer.

And as mentioned above, bluing is really not effective anymore as a protective coating compared to modern things. But, it certainly can be beautiful.

thorn

 

[GPalmer]

My question is in regards to the Walther's they are turning out with Matte/Blued finish. It doesn't really appear much different in color than the black I just couldn't see much reason for it, especially since bluing tends to be a lot less durable than the parkerized finishes.

 

[Soybomb]

There is no blue P99 and black P99, there is the P99. Call the color whatever you like.

from wikipedia:

Tenifer is a trademarked name for the end result of a chemical bath nitriding process that embeds nitrogen into an iron-containing alloy to create a corrosion-resistant finish that is a dull grey in color and extremely hard. The generic term for this type of process is carbonitriding. Other trade names for carbonitriding include Melonite, Sursulf, Arcor, Tufftride, and Koline.

Users of the process
SAAB of Sweden once used the Tenifer process to treat its crankshafts and camshafts. [citation needed]
Glock, an Austrian firearms manufacturer, utilizes this process to protect the slides of the pistols they manufacture. The Tenifer finish on a Glock is the third and final hardening process. It is 0.05 millimeters thick and produces a patented 64 Rockwell C (diamond cone) hardness rating via a 500 ?C nitride bath. The final matte, non-glare finish meets or exceeds stainless steel specifications, is 85% more corrosion resistant than a hard chrome finish, and is 99.9% salt-water corrosion resistant. After the Tenifer process, a black Parkerized finish is applied and the slide is protected even if the finish were to wear off. Several other pistols also use this process including the Walther P99 and Steyr M/S series.

 

[GPalmer]

There is no blue P99 and black P99, there is the P99. Call the color whatever you like.

It's not what I'd like, it's apparently what Walther has chosen to call them...

 

[Soybomb]

It's not what I'd like, it's apparently what Walther has chosen to call them...

Cool, I got the impression that you thought there were 2 different colors available, a black and a blue. I just wanted to be clear that there are not. If you've seen one, you've seen them all (titanium/qpq aside).

 

[GPalmer]

Actually my interest was roused since I've seen a spat of ads from dealers lately where they list both black and blued as finishes. I was curious how they varied.

 

[uncut]

I am not 100% as I did not see the ads your talking about.....
but they could reffer to the frame/slide finish
this would make sense as there is/was black, green and the Dessert Sand
the slide finish always has been called "blue" other than the QPQ finished slide though it appears to be black

 

[GPalmer]

Well, I guess I'm going to be able to answer that myself in a week or so. I've been hemming and hawing since there was another P99c AS in 40 S&W up for sales but it was marked blued finish instead of black. I'd like to have a backup for my current gun in case of emergency! Anyway, I'm going to plunk down my money and take my chances and I'll let you know if there is a difference in the finishes...

 

[Soybomb]

I was curious how they varied.

They do not. If its not silver, its the other color. Call it blue, call it black, they all are identical.

 

[Soybomb]

If it helps though ask for the SKU off the boxes for comparison, they should be the same assuming the same caliber, size, trigger, and magazine size.

 

[GPalmer]

I just wanted to add a footnote to this one. As several folks suggested, they finishes were identical. What they were selling as the blued finish is the same old matte black finish we have come to know and love. I talked to the sellers and it all depended on what the person writing the ad felt like calling it...

 

[madecov]

Regardless, I will say the finish on my 2003 was a whole lot nicer than the one on my 2007.

The trigger was a lot better and overall the fit and finish seemed to be a bit nicer.