Hardest part was getting up the nerve to take it apart 
You made me chuckle a little bit with that. I remember thinking the same thing, especially with the sear parts. I thought I was way in over my head. I didn't wanna be that guy to bring a gunsmith a bag full of parts. In retrospect, I'm sure you're as glad as I am that I overcame that part.
Mine's Cerakoted now, but I rust blued mine first time. I can't tell if it's glare from the flash or what. Did you have any trouble getting all the parts to "take" the bluing equally? I had a heckuva time getting my slide as dark as the frame. I wasn't sure if it was the cheap bluing gel I used or if it was something about the metal.
Yeah, I used my Droid X2 for the picture so the crappy cell phone flash doesn't do the finish justice. I've rust blued a few other things (a Swiss K31 and some parts of some other guns) and I firmly believe rust bluing is the way to go providing you can separate the parts in order to rust and boil them (multiple times). It's a much more labor intensive process than cold bluing, but way, way, way more rewarding.
I went the opposite way that you did in that I had a local gunsmith Duracoat mine first time around. My first inclination was to have him Cerakote it, but he talked me into Duracoat instead - big mistake. Well, it gave me an excuse to put a 'real' finish on that gun and I'm much happier with it now.
Thanks to that project, I now fear no gun (dis-assembly wise, anyway)
