I have a NIB Beretta 92A1 that a local gunsmith destroyed the finish on converting the thing to "G" decock only, he literally destroyed the finish by working with the slide on an unprotected surface which served to scratch the crap out of the slide, he didn't hurt the frame because he didn't have it. At any rate I had never heard of this Cummings Custom outfit before, and I didn't want to wait 3-months on an overpriced Robar NP3 job, so after talking with a nice lady at this CCR outfit I shipped them the Beretta 92A1 slide to plate in what they call "Dusk," again a finish I had never heard of before, apparently a NiB nitride finish which they blacken in some fashion. I offered to pay them a premium over catalog for expedited service but she assured me it would be swiftly turned around absent a premium payment.
So, it comes back Saturday the 20th, on cursory inspection it looks nice, I install it back onto the frame and check its movement, its seems fine, I go out back and I run 60 rounds through it, my first clue something was amiss was the brass ejecting into my face, something I have never had any of a good dozen 92's ever do before. This erratic ejection continued and so I stopped at 60 rounds and took the pistol apart, and inspected it. I was shocked to immediately discover severe wear to the internal slide, specifically the rails which were worn down to the substrate on both sides, but almost full length on the ejection port side of the pistol, whilst on the Beretta's type III hardcoated frame the black finish was worn down and almost entirely off on the left side rails, not the rails themselves mind you, but rather the frame portion underneath the rails! Needless to say it was obviously a terrible job of refinishing, clearly it had build up and such was not corrected at the point of application.
My question is this, the slide can be refinished, but what scares me is that frame, this was a new gun just 6-weeks ago, the frame was type III hardcoated, and the black was almost all removed from it at the location of those rails, does that mean the damn thing took off the hardcoat itself, or is the black just a cosmetic applied over it??? If it was the hardcoat then the frame is dead, I know of no way to reapply type III anodize, and I know of no manufacturer who offer such a service, the implication being type III is a one and done option, there is no 2nd chances with it! If they killed the hardcoat due to an improperly plated slide, then I think it goes without saying they must replace the entire pistol!
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