1945 Ithaca's here..pics

[Garandrew]

Heres some pics...
High Standard barrel, Scoville mag, Keyes grips..
M1911A1 pictures by AndrewG1957 - Photobucket
Comments? Andy

Information

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[gunner]

Really a Beauty ! What kind of parkerizing did you use ?

Gunner

[Garandrew]

Its supposed to be original finish..its not reparked,,,?
Andy

[gunner]

OK. It looks like it was new. Perfect condition.

Regards

Gunner

[Garandrew]

Better pics..
M1911A1no2 pictures by AndrewG1957 - Photobucket

[cplstevennorton]

I just wrote him a private message as he sent the pics to my home email address as well. But my first thought when I saw this pistol was it was refinished as well.

Note the huge difference in the areas that have been hardened, that is usually a sign of a repark. As original finish usually blends right in.

You can see sand blasting marks in the pistol. Even though Ithacas had coarse machining marks in their pistols, they didn't sand blast them that I know of.

The trigger looks parkerized, not blued.

The area under the grips is the same color as the rest of the pistol. Which most were coated with cosmoline for storage, and the area under the grips are just a hair different in shade. As the grips protected them.

And the crossed cannons looks like it was parkerized after it was stamped.

I'm really hoping I'm wrong on this, as this guy is really nice and he paid top, top dollar for this.

But this looks just like my Ithaca that I refinished two weeks ago for myself as a shooter. I mean it looks identical.

What do you guys think? Repark, or not? I really hate to say, I think it's a repark.

[gunner]

I am not a expert but i think i agree. Hopefuly i am wrong, Andy.

Gunner

[Johnny Peppers]

You can see sand blasting marks in the pistol. Even though Ithacas had coarse machining marks in their pistols, they didn't sand blast them that I know of.

Sandblasting was used on the Du-Lite finished 1911A1 pistols as well as all the phosphate finished pistols. The only exception was the late production by Colt where most of the slides and a few frames were not sandblasted before finish.

From the Ithaca pictured below, you can see the results of the sandblasting in the rough surface. The UNITED STATES PROPERTY and No. were stamped before the final finish, and the serial number was applied after finish. The serial number stands out much sharper than the other markings.
As a suggestion when photographing pistols, remove all oil and grease first. Also, photograph the pistol horizontally as it would normally be viewed rather than vertical or upside down. Trying to look at the markings 90 degrees off is much like trying to read a book held the same way.

[cplstevennorton]

What do you think Johnny, do you think the finish is original?

[Johnny Peppers]

I see things that look correct and I see things that don't look correct. I would have to see that one in person to make a call.
As to the trigger, it should be phosphate as Ithaca never used blued triggers on phosphate finished pistols. The trigger is a much lighter color, but if we are to believe that parts lay around for a year or more before they were used, the trigger wouldn't necessarily match.
Some of the markings on the pistol are hard to see from the light bouncing off the oil on the pistol, so hard to make a call there.