The only cyanide coloring that is correct on Parker guns is the the top levers of Ilion made guns. Remington was having issues with the levers wanting to warp using the bone/charcoal process and they could not get it figured out. So they decided to cyanide color the levers instead since they had no issues using that process. This whole deal is documented through correspondence between ilion and former meriden employees such as James P. Hayes. So, to summarize, on these late guns, they will have bone/charcoal colors on all of the parts except for the top levers.
Delgrego chose to use all cyanide coloring on any guns they did once they got their operation going. And this was the case until about 15 years ago when they started having Turnbull color their guns for them.
If one feels that a delgrego restoration adds any sort of value to a gun, then so be it. That value would not be placed in the accuracy of the work.
__________________
B. Dudley
|