Doulble D, Good question, what amazes us is why has this never been asked before? Who knows. The answer is very simple, you can have the traditional black color on the tube in two ways. You can have black oxide/gun blue or you can have a good quality custom auto paint. Both are black and the sheen can be controlled by polishing or by the type of paint (flat, semi-gloss or glossy). Being committed to the democratic process and valuing customer delight above all else, we left it up to them. They all chose the no-chip, no-fade, gun blue each and every time.
And, the reason we take them to a professional plater, rather than a custom gunsmith, is because these tubes have so much more metal than any shotgun or rifle has, that even the gunsmiths with the larger tanks cannot heat that mass up to proper temp before the bluing salts are seriously out of balance with the water content, resulting in many other colors, BUT NOT BLACK. The plater we take them to has been doing black oxide for 40 years and his tank has 100 times the volume of the largest gunsmith tank. He has an overhead crane too, and to this date has not screwed up one single part we have entrusted to him.
Why? Now you know.
Tracy and Mike
