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Early Oberndorf Gew 98 Barrel Band question

They were always blued. I've heard some confusion in regard to this, that they were in the white. I think this comes from the style of blue that was used for the bands on early guns. If you compare an early 'nice' barrel band to a 'nice' wartime band you'll notice early bands seem to be charcoal style of blue where later bands are rust blue. Charcoal bluing is extremely fragile, which is why you can find some really nice early rifles with white bands thus adding to the confusion. It doesn't take much handling to remove it. The best example I can give you is to take a look at a really nice Argentine 1909 or 71/84 and compare it to wartime gew98 to see the finish differences.

Short of finding documentation it's probably tough to determine when finish styles changed due to bands being commonly mis-matched and gew98s in general being well used. Attached are a couple of photos of what I'm trying to illustrate, notice how much more iridescent the 1909 band is, the second it from a wartime suhl consortium made gun (I think anyway).

IMG_3074.jpg51398346_619344771820732_7755605652512178176_n.jpg
 
The high polish of the early rifles also add to the confusion, the high polish further reduces the latent corrosion and darkening.

Some of the 1871’s, 1909’s, had such a high polish, you can look them at the right angle and see a high polish, near that to a mirror, to the point that it looks like there is no bluing.
 
The high polish of the early rifles also add to the confusion, the high polish further reduces the latent corrosion and darkening.

Some of the 1871’s, 1909’s, had such a high polish, you can look them at the right angle and see a high polish, near that to a mirror, to the point that it looks like there is no bluing.


Yeah it definitely gives the blue a transparent look, you're right about it looking like there's no blue at all.
 

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