Engraving Glock 9mm Slides

[Terry Swift]

Has anyone lasered Gloock 9mm gun slides and gotten good results? According to the owner / Glock, the slides are coated with tenifer (Glock, an Austrian firearms manufacturer, utilizes the Tenifer process to protect the slides of the pistols they manufacture. The finish on a Glock is the third and final hardening process. It is 0.05 millimeters thick and produces a 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. Glock Ges.m.b.H., an Austrian firearms manufacturer, uses a black Parkerizing process as a topcoat to a Tenifer process to protect the slides of the pistols they manufacture. After applying the Tenifer process, a black Parkerized finish is applied and the slide is protected even if the Parkerized finish were to wear off. Used this way, Parkerizing is thus becoming a protective and decorative finishing technique that is used over other underlying improved techniques of metal protection.)- a material almost as hard as diamonds; but wants to put some designs on the slide if possible. Engraving would be easy as the slides are flat on 3 sides, of which he wants to put items on it.

[Lee DeRaud]

You mean like this?
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=82662

(Just searched on 'Glock' in this forum...)

[Terry Swift]

Lee,

Thanks. I'm not quite sure how it was done, so I'm PM'ing them about the process they did. One issue is that with successive model upgrades to Glocks over the years; did some of their coating processes change as well. As Glock says - the current tenifer coating is between .016 and .020 thick; which is not bad; but maybe too thin to cover with gold leaf, paint, etc. and some kind of protectant. They also mention on newer models of another coating over the tenifered metal as well. If it lasers like anodized aluminum - that would be super - just need a little more detail on leaving it plain lasered or coated.

[Lee DeRaud]

The Tenifer coating is invisible. All Glocks have "another coating over the tenifered metal". You can do whatever you want to the black overcoat (including removing it completely). The underlying metal is still protected.