1920 vin parkerizing

[GBEAR1]

What would be the correct original shade or color of the parkerizing used on the reciever and barrel of a SA 04/20 vin 1903MK1 rifle? Also should the chamber face be in the white or were they also parked when built? Thanks in advance

[Art]

According to the '03 guy at the CMP and some other reliable sources I've heard from it would be the darkest charcoal gray you could find. The blacker the better. "Greek black" is supposed to be quite close to the color in use at the time. "chuckindenver" on this site can probably help with the correct formula.

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

It is a difficult to reproduce grey black finish that can only be called superb.

jt

[Punch the Clown]

Tim Shufflin (Shuff's Parkerizing) did a rifle for me in blacker than black. He used a pre-dip before the parkerizing. It did come out matte and blacker than coal but Tim and myself were not happy with it's wear properties. It wore rather quickly. This was on a Garand. I don't know about an 03.

[chuckindenver]

the original was a iron phosphate, and oiled and greased, along with a wax sealer, heavy manganese will look the same of done correctly.