[Dgiz]

I have seen 1917 revolvers and 1911 pistols that are parkerized and have read that this was done prior to WW2. I have also heard that this was only done AFTER WW2 during the big clean-up.
I have also read that an "AA"(Agusta Arsenal) marked gun was post WW2 and a "RIA" marked one can be Pre or during WW2.
How about a 1911, parkerized, RIA through the park finish.....Post, Prior....?
Any help to figure this out is appreciated. Dean

 

[huggiebear]

From my limited knowledge, any prewar blued gun now parkerized is done post war regardless of what Arsenal did it.

 

[huggiebear]

From my limited knowledge, any prewar blued gun now parkerized is done post war regardless of what Arsenal did it.

 

[jacobtowne]

For what it's worth:
Charles Pate, in his excellent book "U.S. Handguns of WWII: The Secondary Pistols and Revolvers," quotes from the annual reports of Springfield Armory concerning cleaning and repairing of M1917s:
1941 - 10,232 S&W and 4,071 Colts were reconditioned. Another 2950 S&W in progress.
1942 - 3 S&W, no Colts.
1943 - No specifics.
1944 - 100 Colts
1945 - 18,501 S&W and 16,064 Colts.
1946-48 - None.
Col. Pate states that refinishing would necessarily be Parkerizing.
Also, near war's end contracts were evidently let to the manufacturers for reconditioning.

Some repaired M1917s are stamped SA for Springfield Armory, others RIA for Rock Island. There's more info on this in the book.
JT

 

[Dgiz]

JT,
Thanks for the info. I will have to read over Pate's book.
Dean

 

[flowboy143]

you can also go to the springfield armory web page for exact #'s of how many weapons and ser# range, were made for a paticular year they even list experimental models of IE: Garands , lugers , 1911's , 1917's and so on from the first day of production to the last. Its pretty neat.