Copper-colored tang on Para Military??

[peacefuljeffrey]

This question is for Sal Glesser in particular (hopefully he will see it and respond) but also for anyone who owns or has inspected the Para Military.

I got mine today after a sweet eBay auction (paid about $15 less than the best online-store price I'd seen -- the seller now lists them with a reserve as a result). Everything about the knife seems on-the-level, and I have no reason to suspect that it is counterfeit. Fit and finish are amazing! Lockup is right on. The edge is sharp (no need to touch it up right out of the box, as on some knives). All the legitimate markings I expect to see on the knife are there (though I've seen pics that had the words "Para Military" on the left side of the blade but this knife doesn't say that -- maybe I saw early prototype pics or something?).

My question is: Why is the metal on the back of the tang copper-colored? I am talking about the square-edged face that impacts the stop pin when the knife is opened: it is visible directly when the knife is closed.

I posted about this in general blade discussion but someone suggested I put it here, of course, where it belongs. Someone in that thread suggested the minute possibility of the knife being not "kosher" and I want to hopefully rule out either that, or the possibility of a flawed heat-treat or something metallurgical that I wouldn't possibly know about or understand.

Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

[Steven Andrews]

Your knife is Kosher.
I got mine from NGK and it also has that copper colour - in exactly the same places as yours. It must be heat-related.....

 

[peacefuljeffrey]

Thanks.
I'm resting a little easier since seeing replies from people who have noticed the same copper-color on their knives as well.

Laughably, one of the first things I began to think was that IF this were a counterfeit, it seemed like they may have made a cheap blade out of bronze or copper and then somehow coated it with steel and sharpened it. Kind of a naive theory, but I'm no metallurgist or knifemaker (lamentably).

Maybe some day...
To learn all the things I'd like to know, I'd need a life a few thousand years long, or a few hundred duplicates of myself.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

[KeithAM]

FWIW my Chinook II has it. I always assumed it was the heat treat.

 

[Grover_Cephas]

It looks to me like the detent recession on the side of the blade (that the compression locking tab slips into when closed) also has a coppery color. I'm guessing its a by-product of the milling process.