Quote Originally Posted by theorangecat View Post
The clan elder (a WWII vet) who showed me the 1911 takedown/reassembly process did it in a way that an "idiot mark" was pretty much a given. For a long time, I assumed that any 1911 which was actually used to any extent would have at least a bit of finish wear in the area.

I don't think the most fastidious gun owners in my extended family really cared that much about such things; looking back, I think I may have been the first - or maybe second - of the whole lot that felt compelled to keep a firearm looking new as long as possible.
I think for guys like dad it was just a "pistol", not a collectors item. One's choices in his day were pretty much a Colt Government, Browning HP or a Colt/Smith revolver.