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If you knew anything about case hardening, you should be able to pick it up and "Feel" if it was cased. Even high carbon steels feel different once you bump them up to 50 RC. If anything, 1911's were probably 4100 series steel with a mild HT. Plain carbon steel 1214-1040 would probably have galling problems once you got a little grit in there.
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Well I was right and I was wrong.
Clawson,
“Colt .45 Service Pistol”, has a footnote on the early Colts, on page 92, which states that Colts after 31,000 were made of Class C steel, which I assume meant frames and slides. With the exception of the first 31,000 M1911’s, all of the WW1 era Colts were made of Class C steel. Clawson is not clear on this, but the first 31,000 M1911’s could have been made of Colt No1 steel. Metallurgy was in a very primitive state, Springfield Armory was classifying steels as A, B, C.
This is the composition of Class A steel:
Early Nomenclature: Class A steel
later WD 1350
Carbon per cent: 0.45-0.55
Silicon 0.05-0.10
Manganese per cent: 1.0-1.30
Max Ph per cent: 0.50
Max Su per cent : 0.50
Early Nomenclature: Class C steel
later WD 1325
Carbon per cent: 0.20-0.30
Manganese per cent: 1.0-1.30
Silicon 0.05-0.10
Max Ph per cent: 0.50
Max Su per cent : 0.50
On page 344, Clawson provides the steels used in 1911A1 models, which were the WW2 era production.
Receivers
WDX1335
WDX1330
WD1035
Slide:
WD1050
WD1050 Modified.
The receiver does not have a heat treatment. For the slide, the front of the slide is heat treated and oil quenched. There is nothing describing a case hardening. I am surprised by this. Maybe these parts were not carburized due to warpage concerns. Same issue for the lack of a heat treatment on the frame. The grip safety was carburized, and that is the only part Clawson describes being carburized.
These steels are plain carbon steels. The manganese helps in impact resistance. Currently these steels are so cheap and low grade they are used for rail road ties, rebar. Unless someone can find in the original drawing package call outs for alloy steels, I am going to say that none of the military M1911's were made of alloy steels, especially advanced 4100 steels.
Currently 4140 is commonly used in many commercial firearms, but we actually don't know what is used unless the manufacturer reveals this information or someone conducts a metallurgical test of an existing specimen. I am curious to know what current Colt M1911's are made from, and also what the competition used.