Makarov reddish-brown metal part: bronze alloy?

[Retro]

My IJ70 Russian Makarov pistol's safety switch/decocker is made of this reddish brown colored metal... what the heck is that? Bronze? Copper alloy?

The trigger/hammer connector bar is also made of that brown metal.

I had a Polish P64 that had the exact same brown metal trigger bar, and it fractured after 200 rounds.

Could anyone shed some light on this brown metal? Is it painted steel?

What the heck is it?

 

[JERRY]

the metal for the gun is not all the same, and neither is the heat treatment of the metal, hence the different colors. while most are a shade of light purple, the bronze color doesnt suprise me at all.

 

[Teakwood]

The hammers and safeties are hardened. During the bluing process, these can wind up with a purple to red color if one does not pay careful attention to the solution temperature and the cure time. The safety on two of my Chinese Makarovs are bright red.

Also, old cosmoline residue can mix with gun solvents and result in a redish rust color on other part of the pistol.

 

[makarovnik]

My russian makarov had a non-hardened safety. It was blued and looked exactly like the slide. It actually started to wear after using the hammer drop feature about 50 times or so. I replaced it with a hardened one from a bulgarian mak and it seems to be holding up much better but it is purple. The slide on my ruger p95 is also purple. I think it's because their slides are cast rather than milled which means they have to be heat treated after the casting cools down. I think it looks kind of cool.

 

[Retro]

Thanks, guys.