Ion Bond

J

Jay Cutright

New member
Anyone using ionbond on a custom bolt action?
I would like to know more about it. I have a stainless mag fed BAT I'd like to make black someday.
 
Jay Cutright said:
Anyone using ionbond on a custom bolt action?
I would like to know more about it. I have a stainless mag fed BAT I'd like to make black someday.
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Jay, the company Joel Kendrick represents offers a very durable blacking and it is used even on barrels. I don't have his contact info now that he has moved to Arkansas. I do have an old email address, I'll PM it to you.

Anyone??
 
As far as I know it's not a hardening process. It's a slick coating of some sort that is apparently very durable and stays slick but I here it can chip and scratch away with normal field use.
I'm wanting to melonite the action but I got no response from Ion Bond when I asked if their process would work on melonited stainless.
The black from the melonite will wear back to silver in any places that move or have contact with your hands or gun cases so Im looking for something else.
 
Jay Cutright said:
The black from the melonite will wear back to silver in any places that move or have contact with your hands or gun cases so Im looking for something else.
Click to expand...


Sounds like the voice of experience here........ so help me out. I've only worked with one melonited barrel, tried to re-crown it. HARD surface. What you seem to be saying is that the black coloring is NOT so durable???

I didn't know this.

Care to comment?

al
 
Ion Bond, Melonite, Etc.

The melonite treatment that I have worked with seems to be quite durable. The bolts do wear off the black finish, but not much faster than regular bluing. I haven't seen any signs of wear on exterior of the barrels, but they have been treated gently. I know that if stainless is blued with hot salts intended for that purpose, the finish is much easier to wear off than it would be on carbon steel. No idea if the same is true for Melanite.

As to Ion Bond: This is a vapor deposition process that is done in a vacuum furnace where the desired coating material is vaporized and and redeposits on the desired surface. The actual oven temperature dependa on the material being vaporized and it may be as low as 400 degrees F. or so. The material to be deposited is vaporized by bringing it into contact with a superheated element.

Some companies specialize in treating metal working tools with a similar process that goes by several different names (WCC coating, etc.) This process is done at much higher temperatures, 900 degrees F. or higher and the result is extremely tough and slick. These processes will not coat the inside of a barrel all the way through, and the bore is usually plugged or masked somehow so that there is not partial coating in the bore or chamber.

All these treatments have a use with firearms, and I think we are going to see more of them offered by gun manufacturers in the future. I am seeing some BAT actions offered for sale with melonite treatment, but I don't know if Bruce is having it done or if the sellers are sending the actions out after they take delivery. There is at least one business in Washington state that offers PVD or Ion Bond treatment for firearms.

Scott
 
alinwa said:
Sounds like the voice of experience here........ so help me out. I've only worked with one melonited barrel, tried to re-crown it. HARD surface. What you seem to be saying is that the black coloring is NOT so durable???

I didn't know this.

Care to comment?

al
Click to expand...

It's not a voice of experience because I haven't had anything melonited except the resize dies that I make and they are all still black except inside where I polished them after the melonite was done.

I'm going on what I have been told by at least one individual involved in the melonite process and a custom action maker that does send actions out for melonite before they are sold.

BAT now offers this option for those that want it.

So how did you recrown that melonited barrel?
 
Well, I kinda' didn't..... I just scarred it up some, wrecked the crowning tool and fixed it with a grinding bit in a dremel. Now it's got a sexy cookie cutter dish in the crown face.
 
How about grinding a crown?

If you have a DuMore grinder, one might be able to grind a crown? Could do a 45* on the inside as well with a small enough stone
 
Melonite QPQ is not a coating. It is basically a case hardening process. If you feel like you would need to recrown, just cut the minimum off your existing crown with a Dremel and recrown.
 
wear

I am in the same boat as my buddy Jay. I also have a stainless action that i want to be Black. i want a nice Black finish though. All the Melonite i have seen, looks a little dull. Maybe the Ion Bond would be a better choice? There was a gunsmith that goes by the company name, Freedome Gunworks. they offered a process called Atranite. Supposed to be a lower more gun friendly temp. I called and they no longer offer this service. Bobby Kegin "i think" says anything they coat now goes to Joel. So i dont know what to do know. I have seen some of the Atranite an it looked perfect. Nice and slick to. I guess i need Joels contact info, so maybe he can lead me in the proper direction.

Here is something else i have been thinking about. If i were to coat the new BAT action and bolt, will i loose the matting effect, or settleing in effect a bolt and an action have after a little bit of use. Seems to me like all actions start feeling a little better after a couple hundred rounds. I think this is because the bolt has had a chance to mate to the action, or wear into the action. if the surfaces are to hard i cant see were this would happen? If i were to only treat the action, would the lugs inside the action be to hard on the bolt lugs causing premature wear? Probably not, but maybe we need to think about this a bit? Any experience out there? Like i say, my main concern is if i were to treat both the bolt and the action.
Thanks for the post Jay. Good Topic for me. Lee


One more thing. If i were to glue this action into the stock, would it have to be ground on the bottom before treatment so that the glue sticks? Will glue stick to the bottom of a treated action? Lee
 
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I had my Surgeon action Ion Bonded a couple years ago (action, bolt, and all the miscellaneous small parts). I spec'd black. It is a really dark gray, with a sheen to it, but is not shiny. Looks somewhat like parkerizing, but smoother. I run the action dry, not as slick as with some lube, but it keeps dust and grit from building up on it. Now has about 1300 rounds through the rifle and another 1000 dry fire cycles. It is starting to wear through in a couple of spots. The anti bind rail slots on the bolt, the extraction cam surface on the action to the cam surface on the bolt, and the bolt to action surfaces near the rear action screw. Seems like it would be a great surface to paint, but I haven't tried so can't say for sure.

For my use, which is more the tactical match style shooting, it seems fine and I would do it again. Surgeon forbids melonite on their actions, but they ion nitride the bolt after hardening, which is similar to melonite in that the surface is nitrided, but uses a plasma instead of a salt bath. If you are looking for shiny black, I don't think you will get it with ion bond, but I could be wrong, YMMV.
 
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