Thread: Removal of Cerkote

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with removing cerakote. In particular off a factory tikka barrel which has the factory green cerakote finish. I would like to get it down to the stainless underneath.
Also who would you recommend to do this. I would imagine it needs blasting of some description and would be keen to know how hard a factory cerakote is to take off.

Cheers.

Thanks @muzza, I had a read of that a couple of days ago. It seems blasting is the only way to go. I was wondering if anyone has personal experience in how long it takes to remove with a blast and does it come away easily.

At the temperatures it's cured at it can't be fused enamel but rather a highly crosslinked epoxy urethane or silicone. The name i suspect comes from the use of ceramic pigments in the mix which give strength, abrasion and chemical resistance far in excess of what you would normally expect from a paint.
I would be very suprised if a methylene chloride based paint stripper wouldn't soften it or perhaps remove it entirely it would certainly make it easy to scrape or blast off.
Blasting alone would be a long process more so if you didn't want the original surface stipple and used bicarbonate or other non aggressive media to do the removal.

Easier to sell it and buy one without?

I pulled a barrel and spun it in the lathe.....comes off easily with fine sandpaper, and you can polish it to whatever lustre you desire.

Thanks it seams that blasting will be the fastest option to have it removed. I have done quite some researching now and it does not appear acetone will even shift it of reduce the hardness. Ideally I could work it in the lathe but unfortunatley its factory fluted.
Blasting will likely dull the finish on the barrel and will have a little miss match against the factory action but that is ok.
I have been looking for a Tikka/Sako barrel for some time for this rifle and this is the only one that has come up factory fluted. So I thought I would jump on it despite the cerakote.

Originally Posted by EFriz

Thanks it seams that blasting will be the fastest option to have it removed. I have done quite some researching now and it does not appear acetone will even shift it of reduce the hardness.

There's lots of stuff on various Internet forums which you've probably already viewed. Some had success with acetone but the general experience was if the Cerakote was properly applied and baked it wouldn't budge.
Also some good pointers on the best blasting media to use.

Originally Posted by EFriz

Thanks @muzza, I had a read of that a couple of days ago. It seems blasting is the only way to go. I was wondering if anyone has personal experience in how long it takes to remove with a blast and does it come away easily.

I read on the link that various keytones would likely take it off

@zimmer, I could always trail the acetone and see how I get on. From what I have read it will not affect the stainless barrel at all so should be ok to immerse for a few days ad give it a try. I am thinking as it was factory cerakoted by in the Tikka/Sako factory it is likely done correctly and acetone will not shift it. But one does not know until one tries!

Originally Posted by EFriz

@zimmer, I could always trail the acetone and see how I get on. From what I have read it will not affect the stainless barrel at all so should be ok to immerse for a few days ad give it a try. I am thinking as it was factory cerakoted by in the Tikka/Sako factory it is likely done correctly and acetone will not shift it. But one does not know until one tries!

Nothing lost trying acetone @EFriz

Originally Posted by EFriz

@zimmer, I could always trail the acetone and see how I get on. From what I have read it will not affect the stainless barrel at all so should be ok to immerse for a few days ad give it a try. I am thinking as it was factory cerakoted by in the Tikka/Sako factory it is likely done correctly and acetone will not shift it. But one does not know until one tries!

The universal thinners that panel beaters use is possibly better than acetone

@EFriz So did you remove the cerakote and how did it go ?

I have looking at a few nice older rifles recently with cerakote or other similar coating systems on them .
Haven't brought one yet but sooner or later I will need to deal with it.
Have access to a bead blaster and lots of nasty chemicals and can just put it in the lathe.

But wondered if someone has done it successfully and what worked best

I regularly get ceracoated items to strip. Sandblasting makes short work of it. Never tried stripping it with any chemicals though.

@akaroa1 @muzza unfortunately time has not allowed me to get to this yet.
From all the research I did the safest option I found was that it would need to be bead blasted.
Hope that helps.

try coopers paint stripper!