Tonight, we'll take a look at the slide. Just as often found on this pistols replacement, the Mle 1950, the slide on this example is considerably darker than the frame. In fact, it's so dark that it might be mistaken for paint but it's not, it's just phosphate. When I first received this pistol, it was, as noted earlier, bone dry. In that state, the slide was much lighter and had a distinctly green hue. But the phosphate soaked up the Eezox and Breakfree CLP like a sponge and darkened up a lot. I considered leaving it exactly as found but I don't consider it a good idea to leave the finish unprotected like that. Obviously, this didn't actually change the finish and would eventually return to its previous state if left unattended for eighty years.
Besides the lack of a serial number, the features that make this particular variant of the 1935S so desireable among collectors is the "MAS" marking on the left side of the slide:
Note that here is a period after the "M" and the "A", but one is absent after the "S". MAC produced pistols are the same way. This is common and universal across both MAS and MAC production. While grammatically incorrect, the marking is more aesthetically pleasing this way and the French are big on such things. The triggers in the vast majority of these pistols are polished aluminum. It's the only use of aluminum in the entire pistol and I can't help but wonder if they are that way simply for looks. The French are, well....French! That's part of why I love their stuff so much!
And the early style safety. Below shown in the "SAFE" position:
And the "FIRE" pisition:
According to accepted figures, MAS themselves manufactured 6,626 pistols and contracted Manufrance to build another 10,000. The Manufrance examples are also marked as "MAS" on the slide but the frames are marked "MF" to denote their manufacture. Very few of these early safety examples are known to still exist and examples without a serial number are vanishingly rare. In my research, I discovered four, although I would bet there are more still out there waiting to be discovered. One is in Medlin and Doane's book "The French 1935 Pistols", two online in private hands, and this one. Here is the picture and caption from Medlin and Doane's book:
Generally speaking, the finish is even across the slide but the phosphate took on a lighter hue in three places where the hardening of the steel was different.
The first place is at the front of the ejection port:
This is where the barrel and slide lock up.
The second place is where the slide stop engages the slide:
And the third place is where the slide interacts with the disconnector:
There are only a couple other markings to be found on the slide. One is a "V" on the underside to the rear of the breech face:
The other marking is not on the slide itself, but rather on the extractor in the form of what looks to be an upside down "FS":
I cannot say if the safety drum us marked internally as I am unwilling to disassemble the safety.
On the inside of the slide, we find obvious signs of hand fitting on the left side in front of the ejection port:
In the same spot on the right side, there is no finish loss:
Here is the firing pin:
It's sprung but the spring is still glued up inside the slide due to dried lubricant so I can't show it to you. It just looks like a spring from a BIC click pen. I just sprayed some CLP up in the firing pin channel and called it good. It's not like I'm going to be shooting this thing.
Below is a picture of this pistol's firing pin (at top) compared to a NOS one that I bought from an individual in France to replace a broken one in a SAGEM made example I have:
If you look very closely, you will see differences in them but they are 100% interchangeable. There were many parts suppliers for French weapons and you will find a plethora of variation among seemingly identical parts if you look at enough of them. They still interchange with no problems though.....most of the time.
That's it for now. We'll look at the frame in the next post.