Jerry,
It very well could be just in the white. The grey color kind of suggested case hardening. It certainly wouldn't be to protect against shock (case hardening isn't very effective for that anyway) but since you would want to hold fairly close tolerances on securing the sight block to sight adjustment drive pin alignment, maybe case hardening might help. Just a shot in the dark and I'm probably all wet.
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If it's made after 1918...it's a reproduction
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