M1 Korean War

[TDH]

He told you they were Greek returns or were "Greek Black" ?
The Greek Black looks absolutly nothing like parkerizing and is very easy to identify once you really know what it looks like. Looks like a black enamel paint
USGI parkerizing ranges in color and can be black

I picked up a Walther P 38 with a finish like that. Impossible to get off without bead blasting. Ugly as sin. Thought it was a Russian capture.

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[bacarnal]

He said they were Greek because of the color of the park, which is a black that is like that on the M16's barrel. Definitely not a paint. I'm pretty sure that I know what you are talking about with the enamel type color. It is like what is on the FN49's, what they call stove black, right? Cheers, Bruce.

[Orlando]

I would say he was mistaken, original finish HRA's can be a dark parkerizing. Thats the problem, everytime someone who sees a dark parkerizing its automatically Greek Black, not so.
Again the Greek black is very easy to identify once you see it, more of a slightly shiney black enamel paint. Not a parkerizing at all. Chamber face will also be black

[bacarnal]

Thanks, Orlando. These rifles had been refinished at one time or another, since they were both Springfield 6 digit. Both had been re-barreled with SA 52 targeted barrels. Somewhere along the line they were black parked, maybe when they were re-barreled since the overall finish of all parts is the same black. Cheers, Bruce

[Neal Myers]

The thing that makes refinished rifles stand out is that all the parts are the exact same Parkerizing color shade. Original rifles were always assembled from parts that had been batch finished, so we expect an original rifle to look slightly mismatched.

Gas cylinders are stainless steel, & they do not take Parkerizing. (At least, they didn't during WW2 & Korean) There's a guy (IIRC, advertises in the GCA Journal) who repaints them, & does excellent work.

Neal

[browningautorifle]

Gas cylinders are stainless steel

Maybe not quite stainless steel but it works out the same. They can be refinished and it's not even close to magic, you need Brownell's Oxynate 84 and the finish will be perfect. Nice military looking finish...