First a little background:
I've wanted to develop a better, at least what I consider "better," finish for a while.
Without dipping too far into corrosion, tribology and aesthetics, I'll say I'm a fan of composite electroless nickel. However, current EN technology (at least as it's applied to the firearms industry) has some pit falls. First, some coatings are too slippery (too high PTFE content). Some are "yellowish" in color (cadmium added to the bath). Some are to "nickely" in color (too much brightener). However, EN is great for wear and corrosion resistance. And it doesn't suffer the issues of hydrogen embrittlement and electrochemical throw that hard chrome does. To remedy this, I started playing around with a four component system. That being, nickel, phosphorus, PTFE, and tungsten. I added tungsten for a few reasons, one of which is hardness and another color.
So far, this has been a 3 year development process (albeit, part time). I borrowed heavily from some other industries in terms of final composition, but man, no one wants to share their plating bath compositions. And I didn't find any suitable off the shelf baths that could be modified to suit. The mot technically challenging bit? The PTFE loading. Surface energy is a wonderfully rich field of study.
Now some teaser pics:
The frame you see is that abomination of a 1911 that SA made in Brazil. Again, you can assign whatever meaning you like to that statement.