[Crane1]

OK, I've recently purchased a couple of PSA Dagger Slides because of the price, but they're not really the colors that I prefer. My thoughts are to blast the finish off and leave them bare matte SS. The purpose of the project is to try out optics for SD/Carry. Anybody done it or got any thoughts? Don't want to spend the $ on Re-CeraKote or other refinishing. I know they're just trial guns, but I don't like ugly and I don't want a rusty slide. Thanks

 

[Redeemed]

They are stainless. Not all stainless is completely rust proof but reasonable care will keep it from rusting regardless of quality of stainless.

Blast it and worry not.

 

[JROC734]

Are you in Colatown? If so just go to Amick Guns, and get a finish you like on it. It's not that much. Stainless resists most finishes that aren't coatings. Dagger slides aren't stainless. Why is a Dagger a throw away and neglect trail gun more than anything else? Price maybe? Is something like a Canik a trail gun?

Do as you will. It's your piece, but if you don't care about the gun, why worry about the finish? A stripped/bare receiver with quickly develop corrosion if you don't keep it oiled up. Do you trust some rusting up gun on the trail? If it's that unimportant then why add the unnecessary maintenance involved it keeping it from quickly developing a bunch of rust, and then going from being arguably ugly, to being straight up ucking fugly? "I don't get it Big Dan.?.?" Another thing to consider is cerakote can add up to .001" to a surface, so you will be loosing up the clearances a little bit. We used to have to account for the thickness that certain coatings added when machining parts at a job I used to work at?

 

[FrankenGunBuilder]

Dagger slides aren't stainless.

They list the slides as stainless. Are you saying it is false advertisement?

 

[JROC734]

They list the slides as stainless. Are you saying it is false advertisement?

No FGB I must have just been wrong. Thank you for your insight.

OP, go along with FGB sentiment of you'll be fine stripping your frame of its coating, which he totally implies by only questioning me instead of just issuing a correction, while totally ignoring your original question. SS is just immune to the outside elements, and the fact that a magnet will latch to it is total irrelevant when judging the quality of SS that's being used in it. You'll be fine. It just a throwaway trail gun, that you totally don't like. I mean why not spend you time and maybe money getting it bread blasted, or any other more time/labor intensive process of stripping the finish to make the gun worse than it is.

 

[FrankenGunBuilder]

No FGB I must have just been wrong. Thank you for your insight.

OP, go along with FGB sentiment of you'll be fine stripping your frame of its coating, which he totally implies by only questioning me instead of just issuing a correction, while totally ignoring your original question. SS is just immune to the outside elements, and the fact that a magnet will latch to it is total irrelevant when judging the quality of SS that's being used in it. You'll be fine. It just a throwaway trail gun, that you totally don't like. I mean why not spend you time and maybe money getting it bread blasted, or any other more time/labor intensive process of stripping the finish to make the gun worse than it is.

One must first assess the material of the slide before advice is given. Mine was a question as sometimes you don't know and it is not uncommon for manufacturers to slightly mislead. I personally do not own any PSA slides so, again, it was a question.

Now that we have, hopefully, determined the slide is made of stainless. Yes, I would blast it, but I would use garnet as the sandblast media since it will leave the material cleaner and not contaminate the metal which could lead to rust. If you blast, I'd probably wipe it occasionally with a surface protectant.

 

[JROC734]

One must first assess the material of the slide before advice is given. Mine was a question as sometimes you don't know and it is not uncommon for manufacturers to slightly mislead. I personally do not own any PSA slides so, again, it was a question.

Now that we have, hopefully, determined the slide is made of stainless. Yes, I would blast it, but I would use garnet as the sandblast media since it will leave the material cleaner and not contaminate the metal which could lead to rust. If you blast, I'd probably wipe it occasionally with a surface protectant.

How do you know that a Dagger slide is stainless when you own no PSA slides, yet I own 2 Daggers? That's like a nerd correcting a fighter pilot on a stat about the plane he flies. IDK, the slide never crossed me as SS. It sure isn't a quality, bare frame 1911, or revolver type of SS.

Here's the issues. 1) It may be classified as stainless, but it's likely some extremely cheap stainless. A magnet sticks right to it. Not the strongest hold, but it definitely grabs it and holds. At what point is stainless not allowed to be classified as stainless? 2) Have you ever seen PSA sell a bare Dagger slide? If they have, I haven't seen it, but just like I was apparently wrong about a Dagger slide being stainless I don't live on 2A focused sites 24/7 either so maybe they have I I'm just not in the know. With all the different finishes that PSA has offered over the years this signals to me that PSA must feel that they're sides wouldn't hold up too well being uncoated, and bare SS.

I've got bare 1911 frames that don't have a problem rusting/corroding, but they also don't stick to magnets either. I have an aftermarket SS 1911 magwell (from an extremely reputable company that if I put their name out there you'd likely call BS) that gives me fits with corrosion. I'm on my 3rd magwell from them as they pit and rust so bad, even when I oil them. When the stainless gun doesn't rust, but the aftermarket magwell does, and in very short order that says good SS, vs cheap SS. I'll look for a picture after I post this. For reasons like this stripping the Dagger slide is likely a bad idea. It's likely some cheap, Chinese sourced stainless that will corrode, but if you want to try it then knock yourself out.

I'm just struggling to figure all this out. A few weeks ago OP wants to upgrade his Dagger trigger with an aftermarket trigger. Now he feels the Dagger is just some ugly throwaway, trailgun that he only invested in because he wants to test mounting optics on it, but it's ugly, which he just can not haveñ regardless if it's just a test mule for optics, but he's unwilling to invest in getting a better looking finish added, so he want to spend the time/effort/money in getting the frame stripped of its OE finish, only to leave it bare? This all seem odd and a little misleading, or disingenuous to me.

EDIT: Colt SS frame/Ed Brown magwell, mainspring housing. Again, I've had Ed Brown send me 3 of these for rust/corrosion issues that not even being covered in thin oil would cure. This is after only 3-4 months on the gun. Gun frame, as well as the blued slide has 0 rust or corrosion.

 

[FrankenGunBuilder]

How do you know that a Dagger slide is stainless when you own no PSA slides, yet I own 2 Daggers? That's like a nerd correcting a fighter pilot on a stat about the plane he flies. IDK, the slide never crossed me as SS. It sure isn't a quality, bare frame 1911, or revolver type of SS.

Wait, your previous post said it was stainless. Their website said it was stainless.

This is not a difficult proposition. Blast it with garnet. Coat it with a light oil or some other surface protection. If it rusts, blast the rust and Cerakote the slide.

 

[JROC734]

Wait, your previous post said it was stainless. Their website said it was stainless.

This is not a difficult proposition. Blast it with garnet. Coat it with a light oil or some other surface protection. If it rusts, blast the rust and Cerakote the slide.

I know, I owned it. But you're still a nerd for knowing what a Dagger slide is made of while not owning a PSA slide, and correcting people who do. Props dawg. Next time just issue a correction, without asking a question, forcing me to have to come back in here and publicly own a mistake.

One must read a post issued by an OP well before offering advice. Is reading a challenge for you? The OP claims that he doesn't want to spend money on having the slide refinished. Do you know of someone who cerakotes for random customers for free?

 

[FrankenGunBuilder]

I know, I owned it. But you're still a nerd for knowing what a Dagger slide is made of while not owning a PSA slide, and correcting people who do. Props dawg. Next time just issue a correction, without asking a question, forcing me to have to come back in here and publicly own a mistake.

One must read a post issued by an OP well before offering advice. Is reading a challenge for you? The OP claims that he doesn't want to spend money on having the slide refinished. Do you know of someone who cerakotes for random customers for free?

I looked at the description on the PSA sight after you said they were not stainless. If doing a little bit of research before making a comment as I admittedly do not own a PSA slide, makes me a nerd, I’ll own that every time. One can buy Cerakote in a can and bake it theirselves or they can buy Cerakote or Duracoat and do it themselves with an airbrush or Rival sprayer. No need to spend much. Heck, use a rattle can of Rustoleum if one wanted to be cheap.

I do not buy PSA slides because I have not been able to get a wholesale account setup with them. Their dealer support communication is beyond bad from my personal experience. I’m a dealer for many brands and buy stripped slides in bulk but, again, I have never purchased any their slides or barrels.

 

[JROC734]

I looked at the description on the PSA sight after you said they were not stainless. If doing a little bit of research before making a comment as I admittedly do not own a PSA slide, makes me a nerd, I’ll own that every time. One can buy Cerakote in a can and bake it theirselves or they can buy Cerakote or Duracoat and do it themselves with an airbrush or Rival sprayer. No need to spend much. Heck, use a rattle can of Rustoleum if one wanted to be cheap.

I do not buy PSA slides because I have not been able to get a wholesale account setup with them. Their dealer support communication is beyond bad from my personal experience. I’m a dealer for many brands and buy stripped slides in bulk but, again, I have never purchased any their slides or barrels.

Well if you're that interested maybe you should buy one and get its metal urge tested. Again, it seems awefully magnetic for a SS.


"Don't want to spend the $ on Re-CeraKote or other refinishing. I know they're just trial guns, but I don't like ugly and I don't want a rusty slide. Thanks"

Here he clearly says that he doesn't want to spend $ on re-cerakoting the gun or having it refinished. Then he says that he doesn't want a rusty slide. Stripping cheap/likely low quality stainless of a finish/coating is a good way to develop rust.

 

[Matteo1371]

Not something I’ve done to my Dagger slides. But with minor care the bare stainless should be fine. That said a single color coat of cerakote can be had for $50 to $65 on a stripped slide.

 

[Matteo1371]

Well if you're that interested maybe you should buy one and get its metal urge tested. Again, it seems awefully magnetic for a SS.

IINM it’s 17-4 stainless. 17-4 is a martensitic precipitation-hardening stainless steel and are typically magnetic

 

[Matteo1371]

And even if a Dagger slide were 416 stainless. It is also a martensitic stainless steel and will have a magnet stick to it.

 

[Pierre!]

Very Interesting Thread!

I put a mirror finish on my G19 slide sides - looked great, but started to discolor after sweating during CCW activities...

So I used TR3 polymer finish and it worked pretty well! Easy to refresh in no time at all.

THEN - They dumped TR3!!! Haven't found a replacement and my 'beautiful' slide is languishing in my safe.

This thread now makes me wanna find out what replaced TR3!

 

[FrankenGunBuilder]

Very Interesting Thread!

I put a mirror finish on my G19 slide sides - looked great, but started to discolor after sweating during CCW activities...

So I used TR3 polymer finish and it worked pretty well! Easy to refresh in no time at all.

THEN - They dumped TR3!!! Haven't found a replacement and my 'beautiful' slide is languishing in my safe.

This thread now makes me wanna find out what replaced TR3!

This the stuff? It’s available on Walmart.con.

 

[Pierre!]

FrankenGunBuilder

Holy Snikeis!!! Could not find this in the Auto Stores... and you are Da MAN to share this with me!!!

TR3 inbound in 3 days!!!!

UPDATE: Walmart will not ship either of the SKU's they show... Cancelled the order and found it on Amazon... 🙄 Let's see if they will ship it! I looked at Amazon before, wasn't there (DOH)

Thank You So Much!

 

[Matteo1371]

FrankenGunBuilder

Holy Snikeis!!! Could not find this in the Auto Stores... and you are Da MAN to share this with me!!!

TR3 inbound in 3 days!!!!

UPDATE: Walmart will not ship either of the SKU's they show... Cancelled the order and found it on Amazon... 🙄 Let's see if they will ship it! I looked at Amazon before, wasn't there (DOH)

Thank You So Much!

Considering Amazon just shipped me an order of Birchwood Casey Aluma Black and some Perma Blue. I don’t see why they wouldn’t ship it.

 

[cciman]

There are many formulations for "stainless". They vary greatly in mechanical and corrosion properties. Not all are equally rust resistant.

How you blast or polish is important. If you contaminate the surface with ferrous particles, it will look like it is rusting.

Seems like more work than necessary for looks.

 

[cciman]

Stainless steel is categorized into five main types: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation-hardening. Each type has a unique crystal structure and properties, making them suitable for different applications. [1, 2, 3]
Here's a breakdown of each type:
1. Austenitic:

• These are the most common type, known for their excellent corrosion resistance, weldability, and formability. [1, 4, 5]
• They are non-magnetic in their annealed (heat-treated) state but may become magnetic after cold working. [6]
• Examples include the 304 and 316 grades. [4, 7]

2. Ferritic:

• These steels are magnetic and can be hardened through cold working. [6]
• They generally have good corrosion resistance and are less expensive than austenitic grades due to lower nickel content. [6]
• Examples include grades like 430, 409, and 446. [8]

3. Martensitic:

• Martensitic stainless steels are known for their high strength and hardness. [6]
• They are magnetic and can be hardened through heat treatment. [6, 9]
• While their corrosion resistance is lower than austenitic and ferritic grades, they can be used in applications requiring high strength and impact resistance. [6]
• Example grades include 410 and 420. [8, 10]

4. Duplex (Ferritic-Austenitic):

• Duplex stainless steels combine the properties of both austenitic and ferritic steels. [6, 11]
• They offer high strength, excellent corrosion resistance (especially against chloride pitting), and good weldability. [6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
• An example is the 2205 grade, commonly used in marine and chemical processing applications. [11]

5. Precipitation Hardening (PH):

• These steels achieve very high strength and hardness through heat treatment (precipitation hardening). [6]
• They also offer excellent corrosion resistance and toughness. [6, 16]
• PH steels are used in aerospace, nuclear, and oil and gas applications. [6]

Each type of stainless steel has its own specific composition and properties, making them suitable for a wide range of applications from kitchenware to aerospace components. [3, 4, 6, 17, 18]

AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://www.xometry.com/resources/materials/types-of-stainless-steel/
[2] https://www.kloecknermetals.com/blog/what-are-the-types-of-stainless-steel/
[3] https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/material-designation-systemppt/258831211
[4] Different types of stainless steel
[5] https://addinor.eu/articles/frequently-asked-questions-metal-3d-printing/
[6] Types of Stainless Steel - A Complete Guide
[7] Different Types of Stainless Steel
[8] https://newmexico-metals.com/types-grades-of-stainless-steel-their-uses/
[9] Stainless Steel: What is the Composition, Elements & its Functions
[10] https://sanmeimetal.com/stainless-steel-420-vs-304/
[11] https://metalscut4u.com/blog/post/types-of-stainless-steel.html
[12] https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2874
[13] https://kalpatarupiping.com/types-of-stainless-steel/
[14] https://www.outokumpu.com/en/products/stainless-steel-types/duplex-stainless-steel
[15] https://www.meenametalcorporation.com/steel-coils.html
[16] https://newzelindustries.com/different-types-of-stainless-steel/
[17] https://www.ulbrich.com/blog/what-is-martensitic-stainless-steel-and-what-can-it-do-for-your-business/
[18] https://www.reidsupply.com/en-us/industry-news/steel-vs-stainless-steel
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