'42 Lithgow receiver finish, blue or park?

[browningautorifle]

Appears to say analine dye. Google shows aniline dye...doesn't suggest it for Parkerizing. We added steel wool and it consumes it while turning the park black.

[Topfmine]

It would be great to create a black park, 20 times better than using the old witches brew.I usualy add steel wool to the manganese mix but I will experiment using steel powder or iron powder just to see if I can get it darker. Has anyone tried this?

[Brian Dick]

Mine turns out pretty dark. Mostly because my well water is full of iron. I lucked out there!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I suspect that is "aniline" dye.
These are synthetic dyes dating back to the mid 19th C. Oddly enough, they were first used for colouring wood and leather.

Equally odd is the fact that they would have been discussing aniline dyes when the US had been using Manganese or Zinc as "colouring" agents for more than a decade before this.

I can imagine using an aniline dye for adding colour to anodising on aluminium, but not Parkerizing. You learn something every day.