Coloring in your engravings: the Write Up

[craig_o]

Originally Posted by Myk9noseknows

Man, I read your post 5 times and still dont know exactly what you're asking???

lol! sorry.

Ok, so when I buy my XD9SC I want to do white lettering. I want to go the nailpolish rout because it'll last and I know I'll like it once I've got it done. I'm NOT artsy in the least sense of the word, so there WILL be a mess and I WILL have to clean it up.

I got the impression that nailpolish is a permanent type thing, and I wanted to make sure than while it was easy to get off the slide with some Hoppes, it would still stay in the engravings when I did my occasional wipe downs and when I "cleaned up" my gun from getting nailpolish in plenty of the wrong places too.

See what happens when you eat burritos and then a couple hours try and hammer out a post right before......... yeah, that.

[CPES]

Originally Posted by craig_o

lol! sorry.

Ok, so when I buy my XD9SC I want to do white lettering. I want to go the nailpolish rout because it'll last and I know I'll like it once I've got it done. I'm NOT artsy in the least sense of the word, so there WILL be a mess and I WILL have to clean it up.

I got the impression that nailpolish is a permanent type thing, and I wanted to make sure than while it was easy to get off the slide with some Hoppes, it would still stay in the engravings when I did my occasional wipe downs and when I "cleaned up" my gun from getting nailpolish in plenty of the wrong places too.

See what happens when you eat burritos and then a couple hours try and hammer out a post right before......... yeah, that.

I actually just went the nail polish route on my XD becasue the crayon finally started to melt at the range last week and smeared. Lasted a good six months though. Craig, you can use an acetone based nail polish remover and it will clean up your slide just fine.

Here's a very basic rundown of what I did. First, follow the first few steps of my original post to clear, disassemble and clean your slide. One you have it prepped, go ahead and start applying your nail polish. I used "french manicure white" by revlon, I think...it has an angle-cut brush, so it was a little easier to get into the letters. (does anyone else find it amusing that I'm describing, in detail, what kind of nail polish I used? Maybe it's just me...)

Anyway, I sort of traced around the letters at first, trying to be nice and careful and minimize the slop, but I found that the polish actually "settled" a bit into the engravingsas it dried. When I went to clean it up, I had air pockets and little black speckles where those air pockets were. So, I started over, doing the same thing with tracing the lettering on the first pass, just to get a solid base layer in place. Then, after that dried, I completely SLOBBED a very heavy second coat on so when it settled it would still be above the surface of the slide. After the second coat was completely dry, I used a cleaning patch with a little acetone based nail polish remover on it, and it cleaned up perfectly! It looks great, and now I have no more worries about it melting out of the engravings when I go to the range.

I'd post some new pics, but we just moved and I can't find a memory stick for my camera. Bare with me.

[craig_o]

Originally Posted by CPES

I actually just went the nail polish route on my XD becasue the crayon finally started to melt at the range last week and smeared. Lasted a good six months though. Craig, you can use an acetone based nail polish remover and it will clean up your slide just fine.

Here's a very basic rundown of what I did. First, follow the first few steps of my original post to clear, disassemble and clean your slide. One you have it prepped, go ahead and start applying your nail polish. I used "french manicure white" by revlon, I think...it has an angle-cut brush, so it was a little easier to get into the letters. (does anyone else find my description of nail polish amusing? Maybe it's just me...)

Anyway, I sort of traced around the letters at first, trying to be nice and careful and minimize the slop, but I found that the polish actually "settled" a bit into the engravingsas it dried. When I went to clean it up, I had air pockets and little black speckles where those air pockets were. So, I started over, doing the same thing with tracing the lettering on the first pass, just to get a solid base layer in place. Then, after that dried, I completely SLOBBED a very heavy second coat on so when it settled it would still be above the surface of the slide. After the second coat was completely dry, I used a cleaning patch with a little acetone based nail polish remover on it, and it cleaned up perfectly! It looks great, and now I have no more worries about it melting out of the engravings when I go to the range.

I'd post some new pics, but we just moved and I can't find a memory stick for my camera. Bare with me.

Very helpfiul! Thank you!

Nice to read that the new melonite finishes aren't prone to... well, anything

[CPES]

Originally Posted by craig_o

Very helpfiul! Thank you!

Nice to read that the new melonite finishes aren't prone to... well, anything

No problem at all. That's pretty much true about the Melonite...it would take some pretty hardcore stuff to damage the finish. Nail polish remover isn't nearly strong enough.

[Bycyclist]

CPES - when you cleaned it with acetone, how did you not take off what you just put on in the engravings? I came to the same conclusion and used nail polish (kindof a silver Revlon my wife let me use) to highlight the engravings. But may clean up and put another coat on to make it stand out more.

[CPES]

Well traditionally with the crayon, I found that using a piece of newspaper or computer paper with solvent on it wouldn't pull any of the coloring out of the engravings because there are no little fibers like on a rag or cloth...but unfortunately, the nail polish remover evaporates from a piece of paper way too fast, making it damn near impossible to use it.

So, I chanced using a barrel patch out of my cleaning kit, and with a little patience and pretty light strokes, I mananged to get off all of the excess without dipping down into the engravings too much. One thing though - don't be stingy with the nail polish remover. More is better in this case, as strange as that may sound. While you don't want to use a whole ton of it, you don't want so little that you get no effect from it, which forces you to press down really hard trying to get it to work. That will take more of the color out than using an ample amount of the remover, and not having to use so much pressure to remove the excess. I'll post pics once I get my camera situation figured out.

[Bycyclist]

thanks CPES - I'll go through and redo mine and post pics too!

[CopeyXD]

will the acetone hurt the older brunial finish?

[CPES]

Copey, I'm honestly not sure since I don't own a bruniral finished gun...

All I can suggest for you is that if you're worried about it, strip your gun and maybe take a dab of the nail polish remover to the inside of your slide to see if there are any ill effects...that way if it starts to take the finish off, it's not in a visible area. I wish I had a better suggestion than "hey, go be a guinea pig for us" but that's about the best I can offer.

I really don't think that nail polish remover with acetone in it would take the finish off...although pure acetone might. I'm not really sure. If anyone with more experience can chime in on this one, that would be great.

[ldsjohn316]

I have a problem with my week old XD .45acp

I got some white fingernail polish and some acetone based polish remover last night I was maybe a tad slopy with the polish cause I was sure it woudl come off....

I covered all the engravings in 3 coats of polish, then took some cleaning patches soaked in remover, and gently rubbed off the excess.. it came out looking awesome, the engravings look great... BUT....

the metal around the engravings are slightly gray compared to the black around it seams that the fingernail polish remover + polish has sunk into the metal a bit... I dont know if that sounds odd but its how it looks

I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and can't get the areas where I "slopped" to go black.. I soaked the front of the slide in fingernail polish remover and it had no affect on the color, and this firearm is very new the factory date is may 2007 so I know its using the new finish

anyone know how to get rid oif this ghosting effect?, I almost am thinking about taking a diluted fingernail polsih and rubbing the whole slide, I would rather the whole slide be one color than have part slightly gray and part black