turn4fun
Member
Has anyone heard how well the gunmetal finishes from Berea hold up? Black Titanium, Gold Titanium, Platinum, and Chrome were all considered pretty durable.. Larry
Gunmetal Finish?
- Thread starter turn4fun
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avbill
Member
I have done a study on the different finishes on a scale from 1-5 gun metal received 3.33 points. out of 5. this was a study from the different manufacturers, and 3 independent surveys ( I just did the math behind it)
ed4copies
Local Chapter Manager
Berea introduced gunmetal finishes less than six months ago.
I would answer your question with a more general statement that Berea platings have always had a good "track record".
I would also observe that any "rating" that lumps all manufacturers together is using a flawed scientific method. If there were no difference among manufacturers (subjective case=condition contrary to fact), the results would be meaningful. With different platers using differing techniques and under different "clean" conditions, the manufacturers are NOT a homogeneous universe. Therefore testing SHOULD BE manufacturer specific.
Even more accurate would be to test each product "run". In that case, ALL conditions would vary far less and the results would be far more valid.
I am not aware of any such tests being published.
FWIW,
Ed
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That would be because they are probably not being done. If they are it would be for internal Quality Control purposes and we wouldn't hear about it.
You are absolutely correct in stating that each batch would need to be checked. Seller's can specify what they want from the manufacturer but to be sure they're getting it they would need to specify how to test it.
Wear under normal use would be a particularily difficult attribute to specify because determining "normal" use for a pen is no piece of cake. And, determining how to test for it would have me scratching my head for awhile too.
How the plating process is done by the manufacturer and how good their pre-plating cleaning process is done will as you say have some impact as will the exact alloy they use which could easily vary some from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Now all of that being said - for practical purposes useful to penturners we can make a gereral observation, that while not exact will still provide us with some useful guide lines.
According to the quick guide that I use - Gun Metal falls the same range as copper - ahead of gold and silver and behind chrome. I would also state that I have never had a wear problem on a gun metal finish reported to me nor do I recall having seen any reported on these forums (although that doesn't mean there were none, I could have missed something).
In short, I would expect Berea's Gun Metal finish to be about as durable as any with durability in about the middle of the range of all finishes.
turn4fun
Member
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on gunmetal. The reason I asked the question is because I'm not convinced that I want to sell any pens with gunmetal finish. At this point I try to only sell pens with Ti-gold, Black Ti, Platinum/Rhodium, and chrome. I guess I don't want to sell a pen to anyone and risk having the plating wear through.
On a similar note, I wish more pens kits offered the choice of Ti-gold rather than only being available in upgrade gold, 10k gold or 24k gold. For instance I get an Atrax ballpoints in Ti-gold from Exotic Blanks. I get a Long Click Ballpoint in Ti-gold from Lau-Lau in Hawaii.
I'd rather pay a little more for pen kits in Black-Ti, than get kits in Gunmetal.. even though I like the looks of gunmetal. A few years ago the informal consensus in a few threads on this forum was that Gunmetal wasn't as durable as chrome. I'm still not sure it is. When Berea recently started making many of their kits available in gunmetal, I was hoping they had improved the plating. Like others have said, Berea's platings are above average. I have no doubt that their gunmetal is going to be one of the best available for that particular plating.
I guess the bottom line for me is to only sell pens in platings that I have confidence in. I don't have that confidence in gunmetal yet. I'll probably make a personal everyday pen in Gunmetal and see what happens. Like Smitty said, we probably won't see the results of testing come from our PSI, Berea, or CUSA. Some of these outfits put relative rankings of plating durability in their catalogs. I do wonder where Berea would rank their latest round of gunmetal offerings.. Larry
On a similar note, I wish more pens kits offered the choice of Ti-gold rather than only being available in upgrade gold, 10k gold or 24k gold. For instance I get an Atrax ballpoints in Ti-gold from Exotic Blanks. I get a Long Click Ballpoint in Ti-gold from Lau-Lau in Hawaii.
I'd rather pay a little more for pen kits in Black-Ti, than get kits in Gunmetal.. even though I like the looks of gunmetal. A few years ago the informal consensus in a few threads on this forum was that Gunmetal wasn't as durable as chrome. I'm still not sure it is. When Berea recently started making many of their kits available in gunmetal, I was hoping they had improved the plating. Like others have said, Berea's platings are above average. I have no doubt that their gunmetal is going to be one of the best available for that particular plating.
I guess the bottom line for me is to only sell pens in platings that I have confidence in. I don't have that confidence in gunmetal yet. I'll probably make a personal everyday pen in Gunmetal and see what happens. Like Smitty said, we probably won't see the results of testing come from our PSI, Berea, or CUSA. Some of these outfits put relative rankings of plating durability in their catalogs. I do wonder where Berea would rank their latest round of gunmetal offerings.. Larry
ed4copies
Local Chapter Manager
Hey Larry!!
That is EXACTLY what I would recommend.
Carry it yourself---wanna be really thorough, make a black ti and carry them both. After a year or so, you may have convinced yourself.
Remember though, when you sell thousands of pens, a couple will come back. The cost of ALL of these kits is not high enough to justify 100% reliability. HOW you handle the ones that come back will determine whether you make that person a customer for life or a dissatisfied "ex customer".
Always be prepared to "make good"---customers don't expect perfection, just great service when things go wrong.
FWIW,
Ed
That is EXACTLY what I would recommend.
Carry it yourself---wanna be really thorough, make a black ti and carry them both. After a year or so, you may have convinced yourself.
Remember though, when you sell thousands of pens, a couple will come back. The cost of ALL of these kits is not high enough to justify 100% reliability. HOW you handle the ones that come back will determine whether you make that person a customer for life or a dissatisfied "ex customer".
Always be prepared to "make good"---customers don't expect perfection, just great service when things go wrong.
FWIW,
Ed
Well, if all you are concerned with is wear that is probably a good choice. Black TI is one of the best for wear. On the other hand, Gun Metal is (IMO) prettier. As to one manufacturer making a more durable Gun Metal finish, that isn't likely to happen, durability will depend on the property of the alloy used. The base metal in the gun metal alloy is Nickel with something added to make it dark. It would be more descriptive to call it "Black Nickel".
arioux
Member
For what i have expereince in the past gun metal is in the same range as 24k gold. If you want a good less expensive alternative to black TI i would go with black chrome wich is again in my experience as durable as black TI.
That surprises me because nickel has much better wear properties than 24K gold.
I Personally like Black Chrome and use it frequently because it looks real good and wears real well but it is much much darker than Black Titanium which is closer to gray than black.
I used to be able to get Black Titanium that really was black but my supplier won't do that plating anymore because it is prone to cracking during the plating process making it difficult to get good production runs.