[The Virginian]

I have seen two Colt and 3 S&W 1917s that were marked as arsenal refinished. 3 of them were black/gray parkerized, but the other two were what appeared to be hot blued and the aresenal stampings had white metal in the letter, showing that it was authentic and not a civilian refinish. Anyone know when the changed over to parkerizing from hot salt rebluing at the aresenals. Markings were SAA-San Antonio, AA-Augusta and N-?

 

[Cocked & Locked]

I can't answer your question but I know one person that can if you can locate him...OrdnanceGuy, usually can be found on the S&W Forum.

If you don't get your answer on the Colt Forum, try presenting again in the pre-1945 section on the S&W Forum.

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C&L

 

[The Virginian]

I have done both with no response on the S&W board or on the C&R board. Does anyone know when they made the finish transition?

 

[lonewolf]

Best I can do,Virginian,is to take some info out of Pate's book and a similiar article in Man at Arms. It would appear that the "transition" to the gray or green parkerizes finish began during W.W. Two,at SAA(San Antonio Arsenal,AA (Augusta) and RIA (Rock Island).The 1917s rebuilt at Springfield in the 1930's(and Colt & S&W did some for the Govt.) have NO S.A. mark and have the nice blue black finish,with 2,3 & 4 didgit small rework inspection marks. It appears that when S.A. did the work,they "forgot" to restamp the "rampart Colt on the side plate. So W.W. 2,and even afterwards,saw the parkerizing. Hope this helps a little. Bud

 

[The Virginian]

Lonewolf:

That is helpful and probably explains why the guns I have looked at have a blue Du Lite finish with a fresh arsenal stamp. Prior to WWII the arsenals refinished the guns with the Du Lite hot salt blue and polished or overpolished prior to re-bluing with the arsenal stamp. During WWII an even better finish was used for hard use, parkerizing in either black or gray. It makes sense to me. Some of the blued arsenal refinish guns have plum colored cylinders since the military wasn't concerned with a color match, just that the gun was rebuilt and refinished.