We placed two barrels into the salt chamber to see which coating outperformed the other. One was finished with Black Nitride Rust Proofing by CVA®, the other was finished in Cerakote. Watch and see who wins:

This is a corrosion test between two barrels from two leading firearm manufacturers. The barrel at the bottom of the screen is a 416-grade stainless steel barrel and has been factory treated with Black Nitride Rust Proofing by CVA®, while the top barrel is mild steel, and has been factory finished with Cerakote ceramic coating protection by Traditions™ Performance Firearms. Both barrels are placed inside a salt chamber which has been set to 95˚F with a 5% salt concentration per ASTM B117 test standards.

The test begins now. The salt chamber is a controlled, corrosive environment that exposes test pieces to a heated saltwater vapor, accelerating corrosion.

  • Just 8 hours into the test, the barrel treated with Black Nitride Rust Proofing by CVA® shows signs of corrosion.

The video footage is sped up.

  • Finally, Cerakote shows first signs of corrosion at 1,206 hours.

The Traditions™ Performance Firearms barrel protected by Cerakote took 150x longer to show visible signs of corrosion than the barrel treated with Black Nitride Rust Proofing by CVA®.

This test video shows that when corrosion protection matters, Cerakote outlasts and outperforms, making it the obvious choice. Finish Strong™ with Cerakote.

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