"Black Army"

I don't think I can recall what started as a pistol with a sub par finish becoming the darling of beginning Model 1911 pistol collectors. In an effort to speed up WWI production of the Model of 1911 pistol, Colt skipped the final polish operation. This resulted in a rough dark finish that was not durable, and tended to flake off in patches with only slight handling. Also, almost half of Model 1911 pistol production falls into this "Black Army" category.

Excited collectors will ask if their newly found nickel plated Model 1911 that falls into mid to late 1918 production is one of the elusive "Black Army" models. With the nickel plating it now falls more into the "Old Silver" category.

Charles Clawson described the WWI produced 1911 pistol as having a "black finish", and from this the "Black Army" was elevated to mysterious and elusive proportions.

On this late production Model 1911 the Eagle/S12 and serial number were stamped after the pistol was finished. This caused the bluing to flake off around the markings in a halo effect.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../06/33v7-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../2s7cmls-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../20zwuh3-1.jpg

Great photos of a great example that has endured the test of time and retained finish. It obviously hasn't been handled or used much. Thanks for posting.

Well, for whatever the reason, I got caught by the 1911 bug 2 years ago. When I was at a gun show, a nice looking 1911 described by the seller as "rare" Black Army, caught my eye. After a little research on my iPad, I had to have it, but I couldn't pin point exactly why.

Naive for sure, but I lucked out on this one. I stumbled upon Scott's M1911info.com along with lots of his and your posts on another forum and got hooked.

When I sent it to Scott along with a dog A1 (I bought from the same guy) for inspection, I was pleasantly surprised to hear back that the mystical Black Army, was not only all original, but it was also one of the nicer ones that he inspected.

Two years later I know what the seller unintentionally meant by "rare" Black Army. The rarity comes from it's originality in such great condition compared to almost others I've seen since.

So whatever that Black Army magic was, it worked on me......

Here are a couple pics of my with credit to Scott Gahimer @ M1911info.com.

Per Colt Archive letter:

S/N - 555979
Sold To: US Governement
Shipped to: Ordnance Officer, Big Bend District, Marfa TX
Shipped: Jan 9, 1919
Mfg'd: Dec 4, 1918
Guns in Shipment: 100


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31821-1.jpg


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31831-1.jpg

I guess my Colt Tier III 100 Years Anniversary pistol is patterned after these pistols.

The analogy of the Model 1911 "Black Army" and the P.08 "Black Widow" pretty well parallel each other. Late in P.08 production black plastic grips and magazine bottoms were an approved substitute when wood was not available. No one liked the plastic grips, and the pistols did not sell well. According to the late Ralph Shattuck, he coined the term "Black Widow" for these pistols, and suddenly the black gripped pistols became highly desirable and everyone had to have one.
Now a Model 1911 with virtually no finish becomes desirable because it is a "Black Army".

What was the last serial no`s on the black guns . I have a 6046** . It shows its age Bill

Attachment 34587Attachment 34586



This is what I have , Thanks for looking

Quote:

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Originally Posted by topaz

What was the last serial no`s on the black guns . I have a 6046** . It shows its age Bill

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I think they ended around serial number 620000 to 630000, but I read somewhere that polished blue guns where intermixed with black finish late in production in 1919, so determining the vey last s/n may be very difficult.

I need to look it up unless someone else knows before I get to it.

Ray

The last Colt M1911 reported procured by the U.S. govt. was s/n 629500.

Close serl number this one went to Wash DC in dec 1918 one of 1000 that went to Wash DC got fac letter on it .

Another really nice one, Troy. Thanks for sharing the photos.

topaz: I can't really say for sure from your photos...but your pistol appears to be Parkerized rather than blued. Can you show some macro images in some better lighting w/o flash? Thanks.

Thank`s Scott the Blk Army was my first Gunbroker buy I won the auction at a bit over 3k and the seller said it was 95% cond boy I would like to see what he calls 99% cond gun. From what he told me it was his grandfathers gun and he did not want to sell it but he built a new house and could not sell his old house . The pic`s he had posted were very dark and I think that kept most bidders away . I was very happy when the gun showed up after all it was the first auction I won on GB .The mag was the only thing that was not correct .I did own one other Blk Army when I won this one but the fronstrap was a bit spotted with some browning this one is all there and it`s one of the best honest Blk Army gun`s I have seen.Did you notice the cutter mark in the lh side of the trigger well it did not clean up in polishing , the gun is ruff as a cob but the finish has held on well it was very close to the USMC shippment missed it by like 3 day`s I had to get a letter on it to see if it was USMC or Navy was very close to that shippment too ,not either but it`s cool that it went to Wash DC look`s like it sat in a desk or what ever . Do you know anything about the one`s that went to DC I cannot find out anything about them as far as what they were sent there for .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by prewar

...Do you know anything about the one`s that went to DC I cannot find out anything about them as far as what they were sent there for .

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No, sorry. DC is sort of generic, as every branch of service has facilities and personnel there, and always will, being the national capitol. It would take records specifically for that pistol (like an SRS hit) to really know. One of my 1924 pistols has a hit to DC in the National Archives. It showed up in SRS as a USCG pistol. Turned out to be one of the best "hits" I've got. I ended up getting records that show 604 different documented U.S. Coast Guard pistols as of late 1936.

A friend of mine once showed me the .45 he used as the "store gun" in his jewelry shop. He said that, as a young apprentice/journeyman jeweler, he'd bought it for $20 from a Chicago cop in the 1930s. It was a 1918-era M1911 that had had the "United States Property" markings ground off, and had been refinished with black paint. (Yes, black paint, and not like a British Suncorite finish either.) I guess one could call that the "ultimate" Black Army! :lol:

(At least it had three lanyard loop mags with it....)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ray LaChance

Well, for whatever the reason, I got caught by the 1911 bug 2 years ago. When I was at a gun show, a nice looking 1911 described by the seller as "rare" Black Army, caught my eye. After a little research on my iPad, I had to have it, but I couldn't pin point exactly why.

Naive for sure, but I lucked out on this one. I stumbled upon Scott's M1911info.com along with lots of his and your posts on another forum and got hooked.

When I sent it to Scott along with a dog A1 (I bought from the same guy) for inspection, I was pleasantly surprised to hear back that the mystical Black Army, was not only all original, but it was also one of the nicer ones that he inspected.

Two years later I know what the seller unintentionally meant by "rare" Black Army. The rarity comes from it's originality in such great condition compared to almost others I've seen since.

So whatever that Black Army magic was, it worked on me......

Here are a couple pics of my with credit to Scott Gahimer @ M1911info.com.

Per Colt Archive letter:

S/N - 555979
Sold To: US Governement
Shipped to: Ordnance Officer, Big Bend District, Marfa TX
Shipped: Jan 9, 1919
Mfg'd: Dec 4, 1918
Guns in Shipment: 100


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31821-1.jpg


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31831-1.jpg

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it looks like there a second, larger lanyard ring. What's the scoop on these?

The larger lanyard loop is on the magazine. The pistol shown would not have been shipped with a lanyard loop magazine, as they were discontinued with the end of 1915 production. They still used the lanyard loop magazines, but after serial number 125566 new pistols were shipped with a plain base magazine.