All parts of my 5 magazines are blued. These are WWII & 1 1966.

Originally Posted by dick471

All parts of my 5 magazines are blued. These are WWII & 1 1966.

Thanks for the reply, but I was asking about the recoil spring guide rod - not magazine parts.

Stainless steel was a relatively new product, back in 1941. The level of expertise in Italian industry in general, at that time, was, to be as kind as possible, pretty darn' low. Therefore, without being able to answer your question directly, my bet would go to ordinary blued steel, and not to stainless.
But I don't know for certain.

Originally Posted by Steve M1911A1

Stainless steel was a relatively new product, back in 1941. The level of expertise in Italian industry in general, at that time, was, to be as kind as possible, pretty darn' low. Therefore, without being able to answer your question directly, my bet would go to ordinary blued steel, and not to stainless.
But I don't know for certain.

Just received a reply on another forum that the rods in pre-war and war-time production 1934s were not blued, but were not stainless, either. They were just un-blued ("in the white") steel. Why this was (when all the other parts were blued) I have no idea. The rods in post-war 1934s, though, were blued.