This is my first posting.

I just bought a new Springfield GI 1911A1 and had a few questions:

1. Is the finish the same as the ones issued in WWII?

2. If not what would be the correct finish to include the name so I can have it re-finished appropriately.

Thanks in advance

Parkerizing is the correct finish for the majority of WW II era 1911-A1's.

Colt started phasing in parkerizing in May 1941 and completely stopped bluing by May 1942.

May 1942 Ithaca, Remington Rand, and US&S switched to the Du-Lite sand blasted black oxide finish.

Remington Rand switched to parkerizing in 1943 once all of their Du-Lite receivers had been built up with matching finish parts.

Ithaca switched to parkerizing in July 1943.

US&S stopped producing pistols before they could switch to parkerizing.

All Singer's have the Du-Lite black oxide finish, but the pistols were nicely polished instead of sand blasted.

The parkerized finish on your SA WW2 Mil-Spec is close enough for, umm, "government work". The finish on mine is very close to that on my 1945 Ithaca. To make your SA look more like a true GI gun you really only need to replace the grips with real ones available from www.simpsonltd.com

Some folks try to replace the serrated control parts on theirs with authentic GI checkered ones, but that can be a real challenge. True GI parts are like hen's teeth, and the stuff you see on eBay is often cheap imported junk.