Well Damn!
Heres the story on the pistol. I bought it from an old bird who said he had got it at a government auction in Seattle back in the 70's. This was about 3 years ago and I paid $300 for the pistol. The old guy said he had paid about $100 for it at the auction.
I live on Kodiak Island and there are no appraisers or any kind of "experts" around here. I've shown it to a couple of people who I thought might know something about it and one guy said it had to be refinished and some sort of scam.
I never really bought that because if it was a scam why was it sold for $100 at a government auction (I really believe the old gentleman) and then to me for $300?
Nobody has made any profits on this gun!
If it had been arsenal refinished, wouldn't they have just parkerized it instead of the nice bluing job?
On the other hand, when you look at the lettering on the slide it doesn't appear real crisp, it looks like its been polished quite a bit.
Were the early blued 1911's just heavily polished before bluing? Or does the lettering look crisp like a modern Colt?
Can one of you who is familiar with the early 1911's describe precisely how I can tell if its been refinished?
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Keith
The Bears and Bear Maulings Page:
members.xoom.com/keithrogan