Guys, I'm not sure you're distinguishing "blued" from the standard Ithaca SKB black chrome finish. It looks like bluing, only duller than much of the bright blue you see on barrels (of other guns). If there is a difference between the receiver and the barrels . . .if it's the barrels that look shiny in comparison, I'd suspect reblue. I have seen a couple of those (and in one case I know for sure it was a reblue, because I knew the guy who had it done). I've never seen one with a receiver that looked to have a standard blued finish and black chrome barrels (receiver would appear shiny in comparison, I'd say). Later SKB imports, without the Ithaca name, late 80's and starting again in the 90's--by that time, they weren't doing the black chrome process any more, because as I understand it, that had been halted by the Japanese equivalent of the EPA.
(But those guns had other differences anyhow, like coin finished receivers and choke tubes.) Might be some late Ithaca guns that were blued, and possibly the Mitsui-marked guns as well, which came at the end of the first sxs import period back in the mid-70's. Haven't seen a Mitsui-marked SKB in quite some time, and have never seen a blued Ithaca SKB (other than barrel reblue) as far as I can recall--and I've seen a whole bunch of them, both sxs and OU.
