[ithacaartist]

Hi Jeremy, welcome to the forum. Hey, I tried sticking my neck out yesterday, but gave up after I lost my composition--twice. I think Marc has it summed up pretty well, and details from others will very likely follow as this thread lives on.

One sign that the finish is original is that the end of the toggle axle retaining pin, which is visible atop the left toggle knob, is "in the white"--properly unfinished. Another sign is the overall look of the lines, edges, and surfaces, which is shown by the pics to be straight/sharp/flat--so this pistol has not been buffed prior to a refinish. Another place to check for this condition is inside the top of the frame, where the areas that do not show when the pistol is assembled should also be unfinished.

Your pistol displays an overall need for a good cleaning with a well lubricated bit of 0000 steel or brass wool-gently, so as not to remove any actual bluing. There are links on this site to videos showing how to dis-and re-assemble your gun. Field stripping is the way to expose the rest of the parts that should be serialized, and to check for what we're hoping is the lack of finish inside. I think it will clean up great, whatever the case.

You've been cautioned to be careful in removing the grips, left one in particular. Here's how to do it. The right one is usually a piece of cake, remove the grip screw and gently raise the lower end of the grip until it clears the frame. The grip should then be pulled downward to extract its top from where it tucks under the frame. The left one is the one that potentially presents a risk for chipping it in the area of the safety lever. Remove its retaining screw and push its bottom up from the frame only enough to clear. Then carefully rotate the bottom of the grip to the left until it is free from the safety lever. Once the lever is cleared, you 'l be able to un-tuck the top of the grip from the frame.

Military pistols were most often issued with grips serialized to their specific guns, so check their backsides for the same two numbers that appear elsewhere.