Liberator Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 Hey all, I'm consulting for a WWII game and I was wondering if the "typical" WWII M1A1 was parkerized with that gray-green parkerizing. Not in front of my copy of American Thunder.... The guy is starting to put the "skin" on the model and I want to make sure he gets the right color. Any links to some high quality photos of the correct WWII color? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gijive Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 According to "American Thunder", the originals were black oxide (blue). I believe most were parkerized during rebuilds, originals from the factory should be blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberator Posted March 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 QUOTE (gijive @ Mar 27 2006, 01:31 PM) According to "American Thunder", the originals were black oxide (blue). I believe most were parkerized during rebuilds, originals from the factory should be blue. Great, thanks. Wish I could carry that book around with me. Such a great reference. Strange, if you look at Canfield's book on U.S. weps of WWII he says most should be parked. I'll defer to the specialty book on this one!! Oh yeah, having only fired my Kahr SBR, does the M1A1 fire from an open bolt when I semi mode as well as FA? I assume it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye_Joe Posted March 27, 2006 Report Share Posted March 27, 2006 Yes the M1A1 had a fixed firing pin and fired from an open bolt both FA and semi.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry Ploughboy Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 According to Cox they were parkerized. I'll go with "American Thunder", however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 A fresh park looks grey. I've read that years of storage in cosmoline created the greenish tint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGunny Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 I have seen many M-1's and M-1a1's and not being the expert, my question is: I have seen some with park'ed receivers and park'ed barrels, some with park'ed receivers and blued barrels, and some that were all blued. Now these were all original guns, not Kahrs. Which one is the correct configuration or did they come this different from the factory? http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/unsure.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill in VA Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 QUOTE (gijive @ Mar 27 2006, 01:31 PM) According to "American Thunder", the originals were black oxide (blue). I believe most were parkerized during rebuilds, originals from the factory should be blue. See above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ODS9091 Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 And those that are parked w/blue barrels have been re-barreled after being rearsenaled or parked by current owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGunny Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Guess I need the book! http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/slap.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcgoll Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 I saw an M1a1 last week that was all nickeled, pretty sure it was not the ultra rare "Presidential Guard" finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reconbob Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 Some years back I had the dubious "honor" of processing about 800-900 torched M1 and M1A1 Thompsons which were to be rewelded (never happened). I would say that out of that lot 85% of them were parked, and probably half appeared to be mint condition. The remainder were blued, and most of them looked mint. Its pretty easy to identifiy a used/refinished gun vs. a mint gun as there are places where the parts and mechanism wear which are not eliminated by being parkerized. The trail is cold on this of course but from examining this and many other lots of Thompsons my opinion (yes, I know, everybody has one) is that most M1 and M1A1's were blued off the production line, but apparently some runs or lots - were parkerized. In a production environment black oxide (which is only called bluing in the gun business) is easier to do because the parts do not have to be sandblasted or etched - they can be blued as-is right of the machines. Parkerizing requires that the surface be etched - usually done by sandblasting - to allow the parkeizing to "take". Plus Savage, being a large gun manufacturer had production black oxide lines in place. One final note - it is correct that the original WWI-WWII parkerized finish, when new, is slate grey in color. There is no specification for any green color or tint in the military technical specifications for the finish. The specs say color should be "grey to black" and even allows for streaking and discoloration as long as the parts are evenly coated. The distinctive green tint is the result of cosmoline getting stuck in the porous finish, or linseed oil migrating into the finish from caring for the stock, or the effect of air, light, and oils over time. If you unwrap a Mint condition 50-75 year old part, and the cosmoline has not turned to shellac, degrease and thoroughly clean that part, and it will be slate grey, not green. Bob Bower/Philly O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now