Parkerizing
This is my DIY parkerizing page
Cheap Park Job
Was going to the AK build party, I was supposed to bring a Parkerizing Kit, I had ordered it off of Ebay, but it was
not going to make it in time.
So I had to come up with a solution PDQ. It was Thursday, two days before the build. I searched the internet, and found out
Parkerizing is compose of:
Phosphoric Acid
Manganese Dioxide
Iron Filings
Water
I found out Naval Jelly (Ace Hardware - 4.99 16 oz) contains Phosphoric Acid
Next I needed Manganese Dioxide. Where the hell do you get this stuff? I searched the net, got phone numbers for chemical
dealers in Florida. None knew where to get this ingredient.
I stumbled on this page:
How Batteries Work
Click start, then next. BINGO !!! Manganese Dioxide !! Ok, so it has some carbon and other inert stuff, who cares...
Take a screwdriver and pop the top off a 'D' cell. The black crap around the center cathode is what we are after. Scrape this stuff into a bowl.
I added some water and stirred it up good.
I washed my receiver with hot water and dish soap, did not have the time to hit it with the sandblaster.
I got a glass casserole dish big enough to hold an AK receiver.
I put this on my grill, dumped in 3/4 a gallon of distilled water. To this, I added a couple squirts of Naval Jelly.
I turned on the grill, and as it heated, I stirred the Naval Jelly until it had dissolved. I added a couple more squirts just to be sure.
After it started getting warm, I dumped in the Manganese Dioxide slush, and stirred the whole mess.
I used some stainless wires and dowels to suspend the receiver off of the bottom. I figured this way, it would get a good coat.
I added a half biscuit of steel wool (as I had read on the internet)
I lowered the receiver into the slowly boiling soup, and went out to pick up some dinner.
I guess it had been in for about 40 minutes, so I pulled the receiver out, rinsed it off and dried it.
It looked like shit!!!. It was not black, it was kind of dark grey looking. I remembered you were supposed to treat it with oil, so I soaked a rag with some old Outers Gun oil, and rubbed the whole receiver.
That did it! Now it looked nice and black - almost blued.
The top one is a Eubanks I did with the homemade park. The bottom was sandblasted at the build,and parked using a commerical mix.
Parkerized
Here is a shot so you can see the shine on the homemade finish. The bottom one matches the original Romanian finsih pretty well.
Parkerized
Here are my ingredients - the little bottle of commercial stuff I got off Ebay - makes two gallons. Came with cleaner, black and grey, and finish protectorant (oil).
Park Ingedients
I have some 1911 mags to finish, I think I will use the homebrew to do them - looks more 'original'
My son wants to refinish his 1911, I think we will use the commerical mix for that...