Hydrographics My Neighbor Does

[UTAH]

Outstanding work.

Hunter

[Kevin]

I had no clue this type of artwork was able to be done. It has some pretty interesting applications. Very nice work.

[Mike]

A couple more. I'll get more when I go over there.

[Truckman]

How durable is the finish?...I'm thinking handgun and knife grips that would get a lot of handling use......Ben

[Mike]

Ben, I'm told it is very durable but I have no personal experience with the durability of the finish.

This is probably beyond my knowledge of the process, but it is what I understand it to be. I hope I'm correct and, if not, I will post a correction.

The image is printed on a clear carrier film by a commercial endeavor. You can choose to use a stock image, or they will use your image, I'm sure at additional cost. The film is then floated on a water bath and an activator applied which "melts" the film and printed image so that it is floating on the water. The object to be printed is then "dipped" in the floating image which wraps the object with the image. After that comes a really good rinsing to get rid of the activator and carrier film. Then a clear coat is applied in much the same manner. I hope I got this right as I have only watched it being done a couple of times. I can tell you the activator sprayed on the film is probably highly flammable and toxic. It just smells that way!

The results are amazing. I will probably have it done to at least the slide portion of my Springfield Armory Hellcat just to test the longevity and how it wears in a holster.