Keeping the Unique gold

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:52 am

I just bought an Unique DES/96-U. What a great trigger!!
The slide has gold on the area where I must grab to open it.
What can I do to prevent it from wearing away?
Thanks!
Ben

toznerd · Post by **toznerd** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:45 pm

Hey Ben,

If that gold coloring is Titanium Nitride, like a lot of drill bits are finished with, normal care should keep it looking nice for a long time. It's a relatively durable finish. From schlokipedia:

The most common use for TiN coating is for edge retention and corrosion resistance on machine tooling, such as drill bits and milling cutters, often improving their lifetime by a factor of three or more.

Keep acidic oils from fingerprints cleaned off, and don't use abrasive polishes, and it should look fine for a long time.

If it's not TiN, then not shooting it will preserve the finish for a long time!

toznerd

Mass Shooter · Post by **Mass Shooter** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:43 pm

Ben,

Toznerd hit the nail on the head.
The slide is indeed Titanium Nitride and would take emery sand paper to wear it away. Unique went over the top in engineering when they Ti/N treated the 96U slide, it will not flake or peel away due that it's done via a "electrolizing" process, it's not a plating or coating.
I know of no other manufacturer that has done that. .... Truly unique.

What a great looking pistol I can vouch it shoots as good as it looks! :-)

The top loading magazine is really cool, .... a real head turner

M.S.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:26 pm

I'm glad it's shooting for you, Jim, and that the other guys admire it, too.
Keep up the good shooting!

Ben

Mille · Post by **Mille** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:33 am

Mass Shooter wrote:Ben,

Toznerd hit the nail on the head.
The slide is indeed Titanium Nitride and would take emery sand paper to wear it away. Unique went over the top in engineering when they Ti/N treated the 96U slide, it will not flake or peel away due that it's done via a "electrolizing" process, it's not a plating or coating.
I know of no other manufacturer that has done that. .... Truly unique.

What a great looking pistol I can vouch it shoots as good as it looks! :-)

The top loading magazine is really cool, .... a real head turner

M.S.

Over engineering things may be one of the reasons why they went belly up some years ago.
The top loading magazine is a hassle when a stuck case has to be worked with and you can't get the mag full of live rounds out.

Mass Shooter · Post by **Mass Shooter** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:26 am

Mille wrote:
Mass Shooter wrote:Ben,

Toznerd hit the nail on the head.
The slide is indeed Titanium Nitride and would take emery sand paper to wear it away. Unique went over the top in engineering when they Ti/N treated the 96U slide, it will not flake or peel away due that it's done via a "electrolizing" process, it's not a plating or coating.
I know of no other manufacturer that has done that. .... Truly unique.

What a great looking pistol I can vouch it shoots as good as it looks! :-)

The top loading magazine is really cool, .... a real head turner

M.S.
Over engineering things may be one of the reasons why they went belly up some years ago.
The top loading magazine is a hassle when a stuck case has to be worked with and you can't get the mag full of live rounds out.

That is an interesting scenario, I haven't crossed that bridge as yet, but could see it would cause some issues. .... I presume you've had this happen?

M.S.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:01 am

Mass Shooter wrote:
Mille wrote:
Mass Shooter wrote:Ben,

Toznerd hit the nail on the head.
The slide is indeed Titanium Nitride and would take emery sand paper to wear it away. Unique went over the top in engineering when they Ti/N treated the 96U slide, it will not flake or peel away due that it's done via a "electrolizing" process, it's not a plating or coating.
I know of no other manufacturer that has done that. .... Truly unique.

What a great looking pistol I can vouch it shoots as good as it looks! :-)

The top loading magazine is really cool, .... a real head turner

M.S.
Over engineering things may be one of the reasons why they went belly up some years ago.
The top loading magazine is a hassle when a stuck case has to be worked with and you can't get the mag full of live rounds out.
That is an interesting scenario, I haven't crossed that bridge as yet, but could see it would cause some issues. .... I presume you've had this happen?

M.S.

I doubt it. How does one get a stuck case and still have a mag "full" of live rounds?

Mille · Post by **Mille** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:49 am

A fellow shooter in my club owned a DES96 for a short while,
when the pistol failed to extract a case, the new round, fed by the receiver, got stuck between the receiver and the blocked chamber.
This can occur with more live rounds in the magazine.
You can't get the magazine out without first removing the case from the chamber.
He was also annoyed about having to grip the "dirty end" of the magazine when releasing it from the pistol.

It had a great triggerpull and shot well, but he bought a AW93 insted.

The whole idea with a top-loading magazine was to be able to make the grip smaller (vs. the DES69) without having to manufacture a completely new frame. A desperate action to accomodate their pistol to more shooters (women and juniors) when they were already in financial trouble.

regards,
Mille

jipe · Post by **jipe** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 4:13 pm

Hi Ben,

Your new pistol looks great and shoot as well. The finish of the slide gives an incredible look to the pistol and is also an excellent technical solution.

Top loading gives a lot more freedom to adjust the grip than classic magazine in the grip like the AW93. It allows much more raked grip too. Walther used this system again on the SSP just for the same reaons.

Your collection of unique match pistols is growing.

Leon · Post by **Leon** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 4:17 pm

Ignore the prophets of doom.

The Unique 96U can easily be counted as one of the best engineered and manufactured standard/sports pistol ever made. I had one for may years if 100 % faultless performance and it's quality easily put my Hammerli 208 and AW93 to shame.

Graet catch, enjoy your purchase - I'm sure you will have a lifetime of happy shooting with it.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:00 pm

jipe wrote:Hi Ben,

Your new pistol looks great and shoot as well. The finish of the slide gives an incredible look to the pistol and is also an excellent technical solution.

Top loading gives a lot more freedom to adjust the grip than classic magazine in the grip like the AW93. It allows much more raked grip too. Walther used this system again on the SSP just for the same reaons.

Your collection of unique match pistols is growing.

Thanks, Jipe. Dummy me had two of them and sold one in a moment of weakness. I was stupid selling it and regret it now. I used the reasoning that I wasn't going to shoot the one, so I passed it on to someone who will shoot it. I guess in the long run I did a good deed!---------How does that sound?

Thanks for the Unique support, Leon.
Regards,
Ben

Mass Shooter · Post by **Mass Shooter** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:29 am

Ben,

Good Karma will find you and stay with you, you've done a fellow shooter a good deed.

M.S.