Craftguard is a small family owned and operated business. My late grandfather, William R. Iehl, performed gunsmithing services for several local gun shops and in 1964 set up our Hot Salt Blueing process to service local gun shops. One year later he expanded the service to include Rust Blueing. In 1988, Parkerizing was added in gray, black, andgr ay/green. Two years later (1990), the rust blue line was expanded to include Rust Brown followed by Rust Gray in 1992. Electroless nickel plating of handguns was introduced in 1991 and expanded to include long firearms in 1997. Gold plating of small parts (such as hammers or triggers) was first offered in 1992. "Guard-Coat" in matte black color was introduced in 1996 and expanded to include matte silver in 1998. "Guard-Coat" PLUS metal coating service was offered in the fall of 1997. In the spring of 1998, DuPont® "Teflon®" metal coating in semi-gloss black color was introduced. Damascus Rust Blue was introduced in 2001 and is excellent for bringing out the Damascus pattern. Nitre Blueing was offered in January 2002 and closely matches Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers of the 1850’s through the 1930’s. In 2016, Craftguard added Cerakote and DuraCoat to our metal finishing lineup. In 2018, we expanded our "Guard-Coat" lineup to include numerous new colors.
Respectfully,
Bryan Iehl
Managing Partner