John Bettendorf

Whos the best at providing outstanding consistant refinish
services that exceed your expectations?

High Polish Work?
Plating?
Full service Bluing-Plating?

Over the past few years Ive used most of the big name
refinishers in CA-AZ-TX-FL.

Thanks JB




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Bettendorf on 2001-05-24 01:23 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Bettendorf on 2001-05-24 01:26 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Bettendorf on 2001-05-25 01:02 ]</font>

Dane Burns

The best finisher, blue and chrome, I have seen is Steve Davis at Metaloy. Poly finish? Walt Birdsong. The best metal prep is IMO done in our own shops.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dane Burns on 2001-05-24 13:00 ]</font>

John Bettendorf

Will Do E-mail Sent,

Thanks for the referral, talked to Steve a couple times
seems like nice guy,easy to talk to.

Pistolero

What does eveyone here think of Metalife? http://www.metalifeind.com
An example: http://www.sdmfabricating.com/More_photos.html

Louis F. Alessi

Years ago we used to use all real guns to mold our holsters. We had many guns hard chrome plated by Ron Mahovsky at Metalife.
These guns were in and out of wet holsters thousands of times, and never showed any signs of rust or corrosion. Ron is a good guy, and knows guns. When we started to transition to castings, we sold many of those guns, and aside from the grips, they were like new. Can't give a better endorsement than that. I even had Ron hard chrome a Light weight Commander, and it was beautiful. Ron is a good guy to deal with, and knows guns.
Lou

The best I have seen was a FN High-Power frame that was hard chromed by Virgil Tripp of STI. It is nicer looking than the frame on the Practical I have in lay-a-way. I can not say enough good things about the job that was done on this pistol. Regards, Richard

benzh

I second Virgil Tripp at http://www.trippresearch.com.
I just had an STI hardchromed and am very satisfied. And he gave me a 2 day turn around!!!

Howard Benz

Dane Burns

I have used Tripp many times. For several reasons I prefer the quality done by Metaloy or others.

RMLamey

For finish metal work and traditional bluing, Dave Stagg.

Dane, I will bite. What are your several reasons for not using Virgil Tripp? Thanks and regards, Richard

Dane Burns

I thought about this before I posted. I was not trolling. The entire reason for this forum is to give good information to its members so that the membership can get the very best value for their gun dollars.

I don't have any agenda or personal crusade and would like everyone in the gun business to thrive and succeed. I believe the more of us building guns the better it is for our customers and the better protected our freedoms are.

When asked, I will point you in the direction of where I find the best values in our business.

I know "benzh" and respect both of your comments. I worked with Tripp for some time, had him plate a number of guns.

I can be very specific about the quality problems I have had but would prefer to instead of bad mouthing one supplier, suggest another, that has for me at any rate, not had any problems with qaulity or customer service.

You guys plate one or two guns, I have dozens plated for me each year. A wise man would take that experience and recommendation into consideration when they spend their next dollar.

Realise that everytime I recommend who I would actually use that my jobber gets more back logged and in the end I suffer a time delay because of it. I have no incentive to support anyone in this business on a public forum.

Better that, than you ending up with a gun that is irrepairable from carelessness. I have three from just such incidents.

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Bob Londrigan

I have Virgil plate 2-3 guns a month for me and have been using him since he started his business. I have had no problems with his work and in fact he has been helpful when I needed extra fast turnaround or other help with a gun that was a little loose and needed to be tightened up. The best thing is that his work is very consistent and I can depend on that when I set the gun up. I know that the gun will have the same tolerances after plating as before in all the important places. He is a gunsmith and knows how the gun functions and applies this knowledge to the plating business. Check out his website and you will find out more info. http://www.trippresearch.com

Dane Burns

Good response Bob, thanks. Here you have two different experiences on the issue of the customer service and quality work. Exactly what this board is for.

John Bettendorf

Thanks to "all" for the info, my volume is not as large as
many on the board experience is an excellent teacher.

I have used Tripp Research and have had no problems.

Speaking with Steve at Metaloy I find him very personable
strong professional relationships are very important.

Im sure I will have opertunities to work with both
operations .

There is no "one stop Shopping" for Quality refinsih
services that I know of.

Thanks again JB

Desert Dog

I have noticed there are observeable differences in hard chrome color, coming from the various jobbers. I am not talking about the prep work making it matte or polished looking, but the actual shade of color of the finished work. I remember a discussion with Brian Bilby in which he remarked he hated certain shops that made "hard chrome look like silver spray paint." His favorite hard chrome was from Metaloy.

Interesting to note, some smiths make liberal use of the jobbers to do much of the final finish prep work. Knowing what can (and does) happen with some shops, it would seem risky to do so in my view. Really bad things can happen, but more likely are the seemingly minor things. Edges can be easily melted away where they are not intended to be. Feedramps and breech faces sometimes get blasted away by jobbers who aren't paying attention. Sometimes they go crazy with the bead blasting and the rollmarks or serial numbers are virtually destroyed. It is a shame to see a smiths work destroyed by such careless work.

DD

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Gonzo

Greetings,
Would someone please post a link to Steve Davis and/or Metaloy?
Thanks,
Gonzo

Nathan

A question for Dane or another smith,

Don't you guys do all your own metal prep? I thought that generally the better gun builder's made a good part of their name on metal prep and only let the refinnishing shops apply the actual finnish. It seems kind of risky having an outside outfit doing metal prep since, in the end, the smith is ultimately responsible.

Bronco

I believe that is exactly why the Pros finishes look so good.

I do a lot of wood refinishing...Anyone can apply stain and clearcoat...Only the ones that spend time on the preperation will have professional results.

Dane Burns

Metal prep? Some do and some don't. Depending on the experience and skill of the builder. Some of the plate shops like to "help" you out. Some decide that they do metal prep better than you do. (which may or may not be correct).

I do all my own prep. I specify blue or chrome ONLY and am specific in my instructions.

The two plate shops that I will no longer work with for any reason both did major damage to a customer's pistols by doing additional and unrequested metal prep. Both wrecked the guns in question IMO. I still own one of those pistols which I was forced to pay for because of shoddy, and unprofessional work.

I expect the jobbers I work with to make my work better. That is what they get paid for. When they are incapble of that because of carelessness or laziness I go else where with my money.

Dane,
At the risk of starting an issue can you post a picture of the ruined work?
I beleive you can refrain from posting who the plater was, but I am curious to see, so I know what to look for?
Maybe an education in quality plating work type of post wherin you also post a pic of very good plating?

Wade

Info for Gonzo

Steve Davis/Metaloy
870-423-4225

If he has a website, I've never located it.


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Gonzo

Greetings,
Thanks for the info Wade.
Gonzo

TEXN

I own guns hard chrome plated by both Metaloy and Accurate Plating and Weaponry (Fla) and both are first class finishes. However, these are not daily carry guns and haven't been put to the test. APW is one of the few who will guarantee a hard chrome finish on a LW Commander frame, I think.
I found the Metaloy gun (steel) to be a lot slicker finish than the APW gun (LW Commander)but that may be because of steel versus alloy base metal.??
At one time didn't Bill Wilson own or have an interest in Metaloy? If so does he still?

JJ

I have to second Danes Metaloy recomendation. He also does a nice Poly job too.

JJ