The Basics of Manganese Phosphating (Parkerizing) in HD

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This video shows a fairly good breakdown of the process considering I don’t have a camera man to help me film.

I did leave out a few basic things:

1. Invest in a brand new spray bottle and fill it with Acetone or similar degreaser. If you happen to accidentally get a finger print or drop of sweat on your freshly prepared part, you can spray it off with the acetone.

2. Do not skimp on the metal preparation. With the blasting, make sure you are going for a consistent pressure with your air regulator, and that you are going over all the parts of the metal in a even fashion. 90 percent of the finish you get with ANYTHING you are doing, is going to come down to the preparation of the part to be finished. This applies to anything I.E. painting, duracoat, metal refinishing, etc.

3. In terms of degreasing, if you are going to opt for a simple green/purple power bath, make SURE THAT YOU WEAR GLOVES WHILE HANDLING THE METAL FROM THAT POINT ON ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A DEGREASER LIKE ACETONE ON HAND TO FIX YOUR MISTAKES. This is very important.

4. You may want to invest in a basic sweat band to keep drops of sweat from falling on your work.

5. If you are doing multiple pieces, make sure you are changing your water rinsing bath out every hour or so.

6. If you want a very traditional parkerizing like you see on WW2 firearms, opt for a zinc phosphating, then allow the parts to sit in a bath of 20-50W motor oil for about 3 months. If you have access to large quantities of cosmoline, that is even better. Warm the cosmoline in a bath and dip the freshly parked parts to insure an even and thorough coating. You will get a beautiful greenish/bluish tint in the metal.

7. With the etching process, do not allow the metal parts to remain in the phosphates for too long after they stop bubbling. At this point, the solutions are actually eating the metal. For instance, if you left a 1911 slide in the heated solutions for say 2days, it would likely be unusable or maybe even gone…lol.

8. If in doubt….DEGREASE, DEGREASE, DEGREASE.

9. Don’t skimp on oil/water filters for your compressors.

10. If you really want to be fancy, once you remove your freshly parked part from the tank, blow it bone dry, and instead of following up with a healthy coating or oil, duracoat it.