Finish change over date

[m1903rifle]

SA used black lacquer over the parkerizing on some of the rifles such as the National Match in the early 20's ( might have started with the 1919 NM )

[Johnny P]

Don,

Don't know who Bob Campbell is, but Colt did not use hot salts in 1918. If you can find a Clawson "big book", pages 84, 85, and 86 explains their bluing process. The old charcoal bluing where the slide and receiver was put on grates covered in charcoal in a coal fired oven was used up to 1918, and in 1918 they changed to a gas fired oven where the slides and receivers were put on racks in an oven that rotated the parts above a charcoal mixture. The black finish came along in mid 1918 when the final surface preparation was eliminated, causing the blue to be almost black, and proved to be less durable than the previous finish.

The black finish ended with the end of production of the 1911 in early 1919, and the next pistols ordered by Ordnance was in 1924, and had the beautiful oven blue finish again.

1924 Transition

[Don W]

Johnny,

Latest issue of NRA "Man At Arms" magazine has a feature article on the "BLACK ARMY" M1911, written by Bob Campbell.

I do have Clawson's Big Book (big $$$), but was just quoting Bob Campell's info.

Respectfully, DW

Other ~ Johnny: The pistol in your photo looks somewhat like an "A1" configuration & not a 1918/1919 M1911.

DW

[Johnny P]

Don,

Mr. Campbell sure got that one wrong. As noted earlier, the hot salt blue process did not come into general use until the 1930's.

In 1936 Colt put out a book entitled "Century of Achievement, 1836 - 1936". In the book a description of the Colt finish is given, and this is the oven blue finish started in 1918 and used until production of blued pistols halted in 1942. When Colt went back into production following WWII, hot salt bluing was then used.

[Don W]

Johnny,

I respect your knowledge more than you will ever know. I realize that you probably have forgotten more about M1911's, M1911A1's, & Government Models than I will ever know. I was just reporting recent info (good or bad) I had found.

Thankxabunch for all of your input.

Don W

[Johnny P]

Don,

In one of the early books on the Model 1911 the author gave the information that the 1911 slide was marked on the right side with either MODEL OF 1911 U.S. ARMY, MODEL OF 1911 U.S. NAVY, or MODEL OF 1911 USMC. The USMC marked pistol was never made, but being in print the false information persists to this day. This lead the fakers to create Model 1911 pistols with the USMC marking.

JP

[Rick the Librarian]

SA used black lacquer over the parkerizing on some of the rifles such as the National Match in the early 20's ( might have started with the 1919 NM )

I've got a 1919 Springfield NM with a somewhat "interesting" finish on the receiver:

[Emri]

I've got a 1919 Springfield NM with a somewhat "interesting" finish on the reciever.

Rick,

That is the type finish I refered to as "paint". Black & shiney. John Beard says it is "asphaltom paint" similar to what "pruning paint" is.

FWIW,

Emri

[IditarodJoe]

When was the metal finish of action, barrel etc changed from rust blue to dark parkerise, and when did the dark parkerise stop and the grey begin?

FWIW, I don't know that the government ever rust blued 1903 receivers. I think that prior to Parkerizing they were oil-quench case hardened, just like the Krags before them.

HTH

[chuckindenver]

black oxide or hotsalts blue really wasnt used until about 1936 or so, even after it was a proven finish, most manufactures stayed with Rust blue finish,oil quench or furnace blue, maybe do to quality or the cost of changing over to the mess of the tanks.
and over the years black oxide coatings formulas have changed little, though still nasty to use, they are much safer then the original formula.