Does your Ohio Rapid Fire rifle literally sparkle? Mine does in daylight or when I have substantial lights on inside. Is this a fluke of my rifle or is it common? I want to say that I'm very satisfied with my Bulgy AK74 and the workmanship is great. But the 'sparkly' finish causes the parkerizing to turn splotchy and grey (almost silver) when it gets warm or doesn't have a healthy coat of oil on it.

The reason for the sparkle is the sandblasting. I'm not the type to tell people how they should run their business, but if you turn down your air pressure and/or use a finer grit - just be a little less aggressive - your finish will turn out much nicer.

Nope, My SEAK I is dark black (BLARK) I think.  A little crud around the side scope rail. overall decent I guess.

The "sparkle" is from the phosphating.  The longer the part is left in the solution the more "sparkle" it gets.

I try to keep the "sparkle" to a minimum but it seems that some parts just get a little more "sparkle" than others regardless of what you do.

You could be right, but I think you'd REALLY have to leave it in the phosphate tank a LONG time to eat that far into the metal. This definatly appears to be from agressive sandblasting. The muzzle break looks great, it dosen't have the rough texture or the 'sparkle' the rest of the gun does and it's likely a US made part, so it never has an older finish blasted off.