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Two Tone Magazine
Stumpy has it correct. Colt heat blued their magazines by the same process they used to blue their pistols. The magazines were originally tempered and then blued. Colt found that the temperature from the heat blueing was removing the the temper from the lips of the magazine, and changed the process to blueing the magazines first, and then tempering them in liquid cyanide at around 1500 degrees F. The cyanide removed the blueing to the depth that the magazines were dipped, which was specified to include the magazine catch notch early after the tempering procedure was changed. Colt did not find this finish objectionable, as they used it on both their commercial production and government contracts to almost 1940.
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Stumpy has it correct. Colt heat blued their magazines by the same process they used to blue their pistols. The magazines were originally tempered and then blued. Colt found that the temperature from the heat blueing was removing the the temper from the lips of the magazine, and changed the process to blueing the magazines first, and then tempering them in liquid cyanide at around 1500 degrees F. The cyanide removed the blueing to the depth that the magazines were dipped, which was specified to include the magazine catch notch early after the tempering procedure was changed. Colt did not find this finish objectionable, as they used it on both their commercial production and government contracts to almost 1940.
