When talking about firearm finishes, emphasis is placed on several key performance categories such as:

• Hardness
• Chemical resistance
• Lubricity
• Abrasion resistance and
• Color

But none of these are as critical as corrosion protection. The average firearm owner deals with corrosion more than any other finish related problem. You are about to see what happens when Cerakote goes head-to-head in a salt chamber test against seven competitive finishes. Who will Finish Strong™?

NIC tests are in accordance to ASTM standards. ASTM International is a globally recognized leader in the development of standards used around the world to improve product quality, safety, and consumer confidence. According to ASTM B117-03, the corrosion test provides a controlled corrosive environment which has been utilized to produce relative corrosion resistance information for specimens of metals and coated metals, exposed in a given test chamber.

The salt chamber is set to a temperature of 95˚F with a 5% salt concentration. Salt chamber testing is used to draw a comparison between metals and finishes and does not correlate to a specific number of hours of real world use. Nine firearm components in total are placed into the salt chamber to see how long it takes for each finish to show initial signs of corrosion. At that point, time will be noted for that particular finish. Observe, not all test components are identical. In order to achieve the most accurate test results, finished parts were sourced directly from the manufacturer if available. Components that required application, including Cerakote, were coated on cut sections of the same mild steel barrel which insured a consistent base metal on all test pieces, guaranteeing an accurate comparison.

In order to give you an idea of how harsh this environment is, a high grade 416-stainless steel barrel was placed inside with the other firearm components as a baseline. The environment inside the salt chamber is so harsh, that it makes it impossible to capture clear photography. We’ve mounted a camera to the ceiling above the chamber, and our lab tech will open the chamber door to take pictures. This salt chamber will run as long as it takes for every protective finish to show signs of corrosion.

Who will Finish Strong™? Rust appearing on the white panels holding each part does not necessarily indicate first signs of corrosion. The salt chamber recycles the salt water, which picks up rust in the atmosphere and deposits it on surfaces throughout the test chamber which can give the false impression that corrosion has begun. First signs of corrosion are noted when the test components show numerous areas of corrosion from non-deposited rust. The test begins now…

• Bluing and stainless-steel showed visible signs of corrosion within the first 24 hours.
• Corrosion was visible within the first 48 hours on FailZero, NIBX, Ionbond, Phosphate and KG Gun Kote.

The video footage is sped up.

• Within 172 hours Duracoat® began to show signs of corrosion.

The video footage is sped up again. We can now easily see which protective finish outlasts all the others.

• Finally testing was concluded at 2,034 hours when Cerakote showed initial signs of corrosion.

Corrosion protection results are easily presented in a simple bar graph displaying the protective finishes on one axis and time and hours on the other. ASTM testing standard B117-03, Cerakote finished strong by lasting over 11x as long as the nearest competitive finish, and 85x longer than standard bluing or stainless steel.

When corrosion protection matters, choose Cerakote and Finish Strong™.