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Posted: 12/31/2014 10:36:54 PM EDT
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Going though my parts, i have a few parts that have a slight bronzish tint to them. Almost like the NiB finish nowadays:
The bronzish carrier is shinier than the more traditional silver chrome one. 
Have you guys seen any other parts like this? I only have one carrier and 2 firing pins w/ this finish. |
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so maybe the question to ask would be did they nickel plate along w/ hard chrome on the early parts? Quoted:
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Honestly, that looks like the nickel plating I have seen on old Colt pistols pistols from the late 1800s. so maybe the question to ask would be did they nickel plate along w/ hard chrome on the early parts? The chrome carriers I have wear through from chrome straight to steel, no intermediate layers. (Isn't it common to plate copper, nickel, then chrome?) One of my carriers is brighter than the others but does not have the nickel look to it. I agree the frosty chrome is the most common that I have seen. ETA: What I was getting at was it doesn't look like the gold tint carrier isn't in an intermediate stage of plating. Can you post pictures showing the tool marks of the one that looks like nickel? Maybe some of the machinists here can tell us if they look "correct." |
more pics. both are NOS without any hint of wear or carbon. there is a slight drag mark on the bronzish one so it may have been cycled over a hammer. another interesting thing i found is that the back of the carrier where the bolt tail interacts with is copperish on both sides.
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Hard chrome is applied over raw steel, decorative is done over nickel or over bronze and nickel. It does look like nickel boron sort of. It may have just been polished by some poor SOB for a drill or parade rifle, hard to say.
When I went through basic the guys that failed out for whatever reason had to polish the mop buckets and trash cans all day every day until their orders to be removed from training came through. Hard to believe but enough brasso can make anything look like that bolt carrier. |
| I was going to say the same thing. Hard chrome is applied over steel. It is also known as "black" chrome, even though it is more of a frosty white. Decorative chrome can/has been applied over a copper flash. I would have assumed that "our" chrome parts were all hard chromed, but who knows. |
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