KONGSBERG-Colten

saintclair said:

Stan, The paint on the grips of your Norwegian 1945 shows practically no wear. I wonder if some of the paint or dark varnish used on the grips was also applied to the metal on some of these guns.

Click to expand...

saintclair,

There seems to be variations in the cut of the Kongsberg Stocks, but not in the (most of the) wood or stain.? The wood appears a type of porous soft wood.? With a dark brown/black stain. Most likely, stocks are covered/explained in KONGSBERG-COLTEN? Will check again to see if there is info on the stocks in the book.

Most likely, Forum viewers will not have KONGSBERG-COLTEN, however, many should have the Clawson GM book. There are pictures of Kongsberg stocks on pages 176 -180. Note the changes in the checkering,---16+/- on the M/1912 (No59) and the 1924, 13+/- on the 1941, and 9+/- on this one and the 1945 (No 29961). Will try to put up pictures of 1927, 1941, and this 1945 stocks.

BTW, the irregular dark patches on this 1945 are due (most likely) to dried oil in the parkerizing bloom. (Did dab some of those areas with acetone, it did not change the color much...just dried it out. (Not a good idea to rub the bloom.) Most likely this 1945 is not coated with anything other than Rig/oil. (The 1941 Kongsberk Pistols were/are painted with a "black enamel finish". Might be able to get pictures of this Early 1945 with a 1941, in the same frame/lighting, for comparison.)

Here's a picture (there are two other Pictures of the same area above in post #1, for comparison) of an area that some object irregularly rubbed the bloom off the slide just in front of the rear sight. Note the dark irregular finish for about an inch in the surrounding dark/dull bloom. Also, notice the removal of the bloom around the rear sight,---most likely, occurred during sight installation.

(Working on some barrel pictures [and internal features] of this 1945.)

Best Regards,

Here is part of an internet article by Beetle about the Norwegian 1911.

Norway production began at Kongsberg Vapenfabrikk, the government weapons factory in Kongsberg, located about 45 miles from Oslo. The Norwegians redesigned the slide stop to make it easier to operate with one hand. To accommodate this change a small section of the left grip was cut out.

Kongsberg Vapenfabrikk manufactured well over 20,000 units of the M1914 in the period between 1914-1940. Early examples had a nice blue finish (although nowhere near as fine as Colt’s finish on early Government Models). However by 1938 the clouds of war had gathered in Europe and Kongsberg switched to a faster and less labor intensive phosphate and enamel finish.
In 1940 the Germans invaded and quickly occupied Norway. The factory was captured and kept in operation to produce weapons for Nazi use. M1914 pistols and Krag rifles produced at the factory were transferred to Armeoberkommando Norwegen (Norwegian Army Command). Most of these weapons were used by German or Norwegian Quisling forces (Norwegians that collaborated with Germany). The M1914 pistol was designated as the Pistole 657 by the Germans.
By 1945 the end was near. The German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt) ordered the Kongsberg factory to gear up for the final Allied invasion as no resupply from Germany was possible. Even though M1914 pistols had been produced for the German war effort since 1940, it was only in 1945 that the Nazi waffenamt was added to the stamps.

A WaA84 waffenamt was applied to the slide and barrel indicating that the gun passed inspection
Norway was liberated on May 8, 1945 bringing an end to German occupation in Norway. After the war a few hundred additional pistols were manufactured, but without the Nazi waffenamt. In 1947 the production of the M1914 pistol by Kongsberg Vapenfabrikk was discontinued permanently. In total approximately 32,000 Norwegian M1914 pistols were produced, 8,223 during Nazi occupation. Of the 8,223 made for the Germans, only 920 had the waffenamt applied – marking the gun as a Nazi “1911.”