Breech Oiler (including Felt Pads)

[The Moor]

Was looking at a breech oiler from a Savage model 1928A1 yesterday and noticed that the sheet metal of this part appeared to be blued. It has been sometime since I have had my Colt Thompson out of the safe much less dissassembled to this degree. I though I remembered the metal of the Colt breech oiler being the dull white/silver finish similar to the other nickel steel internal parts.

 

Has anyone noticed the difference in the metal of the breech oilers of the Colt Thompsons compared to the Savage Thompson or is my memory failing me?

[The Moor]

Pulled the Colt out of the safe last night to answer my own question and to post here in case anyone else had the same question. Also pulled out a box of spare Savage M1928A1 parts to look at an unissued breech oiler. The finish on the Colt oiler and the unissued Savage oiler appear to be very similar. Not much of a finish on either, not the white/silver nickel finish and not blued either. Sort of a grayish colored sheet metal with some splotches. Now that I could examine these two parts, I think that the blued finish oiler that I saw the other night was probably a West Hurley part.

The very noticeable difference in the Colt part and the Savage part is the fit of the oiler in the receiver and the material that the pads are made of. The Colt part has a couple of extra bends in it that allows it to fit flush with all the curves inside the receiver. The Savage part does not have these bends and does not fit flush with all of the curves inside of the receiver as well as the Colt part. The material on the Colt pads is a fine wool felt with a grayish color. The material on the Savage pads is a coarse wool with a brownish color.

 

[PK.]

To my knowledge, WH did not make breech oilers