Original Military Finish ?

[LSU Tiger]

I'm guessing that any Thompson I get will have to be refinished. It seemed that Doug Richardson said in his catalog that military Thompsons were finished in a black oxide finish, not parkerizing. I read of a finish called "Duracoat" that is close (I'm told) to the "Dulite" finish used in WW II. I know that it wouldn't be an exact duplication of the original finish, but from a cosmetic stand point, close. What do ya'll think??? http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/huh.gif

[Arthur Fliegenheimer]

If you mean any military TSMG? When they went through a rebuild, which most WWII examples did, they were parkerized. You might want to match the original color to an NOS Savage barrel.

[PK.]

Dulite is a company name for “black oxide” or ‘hot salts bluing”, the same process used on virtually all firearms today. Dulite is still sold, and is one of many brands in common use.

 

The military guns were either blued right over the raw machined steel or sand blasted and then blued.

 

Subsequent rebuilds were parkerized.

 

There are exceptions to just abut everything.

 

[giantpanda4]

Since we are on this subject... what is the color of the original 1921s? I heard they were a bright blue - maybe it is called "cobalt blue". Were any of the 1928 overstamps refinished for that contract, or did they stay blue?

[gijive]

Mike,

 

There was no 1928 Overstamp contract. All 15,000 Colt guns were made as Model of 1921A between 1921 and 1922. All have the same polished blue finish. The 1928 Navy Model Overstamps were made from the stock of original guns. Colt Thompsons that found their way into U.S. Military service during the late 1920s and 1930s could have, of course, been refinished during rebuild programs in whatever finish the miltary felt like using at the time.

 

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Washington, D.C. has a Colt U.S. Navy Model Overstamp that was rebuilt during WWII and is parkerized with the gray/green finish.

[clint]

I dont think I've ever responded on this board so now is as good a time as any. I've always been facinated by Thompsons since I saw the movie "The Untouchables" when I was a kid. They've just got so much style http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/cool.gif However, since I don't have a Class 3 license or thousands of dollars to buy the real thing, and I've been playing paintball for about 8 years now, I wanted to build a paintball gun with a very "thompson-esque" flair, complete with one of doug's beautifull foregrips of course.

 

One of my questions was what color would you call the finish of a Colt thompson, I need something to aproximate the color when i send my gun off to be anodized. I saw a pic of the custom 1921 SA Thompson owned by Delvin B. Powers and I read somewhere that they were trying to aproximate the finish of the original 21's. It's definitley the look I'm going for, but what color would you call that? Sorry to ramble... http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/smile.gif

[LSU Tiger]

Clint, look at the thread for the "Berrien County Sheriff's Guns." There's a couple of pics there that should help.

[nobra81]

Hey Tiger,

I believe the ww11 receivers were parkized and the barrels were left blued. There are going to be examples because of rebuilts of all kinds. My 28a1 savage came with the blued barrel and parked receiver. When i had it redone, I just reparked the whole gun.

 

 

GO LSU TIGER

 

Steve

[full auto 45]

All the guns left the factory with a "blued" finish on them. They were parkerized when they were sent back to be re-worked at a arsenal. Some like the Colt's had the shiney polished blue on them because of the quality of workmanship put into the gun itself. The later war guns had a duller finish because they were not polished to the shine a Colt had. I've played around with that myself and if you take say a mag and hand polish it to a mirror finish, then blue it, you get the same style finish as a pony gun. If you just clean it well to the bare metal and blue it, you get a dull black looking finish. If you have a gun that is multi colors, it has been put together by someone not at a arsenal. I've seen a couple where the reciever is parked and the lower and barrel are blued. Even the wood is different colors.