How to Achieve a Worn Parkerized Look WWI Style

[Life During Wartime]

So I love the way that some (many?) of th 1911s from WWI and other pre-A1 pistols. The cost of having one of those is however rather steep. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas/experience in taking a modern parkerized 1911 and wearing off the coating to get that same look. The only two ideas that came to m head were to use some sort of sandpaper or to spend gobs of time rubbing it with leather
THoughts

 

[HammsBeer]

Maybe put it in a leather holster, wrap it in towels, wrap duct tape around the whole thing to keep it together, and clamp it in a paint mixer shaker???

 

[Sam1911]

Actually, it is a lot easier than you think. Good holster + a year's worth of matches and practices. It'll be "looking good" by the time you're SHOOTING good.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

I think you are looking for an aged, patina'd look. Just a note that the WWI guns were not parkerized, but had several different finishes, but mostly started out as bright or dull blued. There are people at Cimarron Firearms that get paid to make some of their cowboy type single actions look 100 years old. You might give them a call.

 

[Jim K]

WWI era 1911's were not Parkerized, they were brush blued. Pre-WWI pistols had a dull blue and the very early ones were highly polished blue black, like the other Colt pistols and revolvers of that era.


Jim

 

[Life During Wartime]

I had no idea that they were blued. Thank you! Always happy to learn something of history. DOes a worn parkerized look different? If it does, who makes a blued 1911 these days?

 

[gym]

Just google it ,there are kits you can buy

 

[Old Fuff]

Several different kinds of blue were used on government purchased 1911 and 1911A1 pistols until about 1940 or '41. At that time Colt removed the bluing equipment and installed Parkerizing tanks following a change in specifications. About the same time and forward, earlier production pistols that were referbished were also Parkerized and later issued during the Second World War.

Thus it is not unusual to find a early 1911 pistol that went through referbishing and is now Parkerized.

 

[Spats McGee]

Carry it & shoot it. Lots.