I have a "beater" pistol that's had some finish damage on the slide for a long time (previous owner), and sometime soon I intend to media-blast it and refinish in one form or another. Looking for advice from those of you who have done something similar. A friend said I might want to use a gentle media like walnut shells to avoid removing too much metal, changing the size/shape of holes etc. [The current remaining finish is some kind of black enamel.]

What else should I consider?
Anyone have a link to a good source of info about this?

I'd like to do the refinishing myself rather than send it off to Robar or anything like that (again, it's a beater), so recommendations on at-home treatments are welcome. I'm wondering about DuraCoat.

Thanks folks!