O and the final cost, counting the blue, and some polishing head for the dremel, (i had the walnut lying around from one of my grandfathers furniture projects) was $576.23 i havent shot it yet after refinishing, but she shot like a dream before. Yes, i am proud of it. I think i agree with you and i will repolish the sideplate. ill also get a picture of the top, the blue same out great on the toggle and looks real nice with the strawed ejector

What product did you use to reblue the gun? Looks nice.

i bought the birchwood casey liquid gun blue kit, that comes with everything. except, to de-blue i used white vinegar instead of their chemical. i got a crusty oxidation issue on the first part i tried, so i went with the vinegar instead. (took two hours of soaking but worked like a charm)

Nice job!

I like the red grips a lot. Also, an interesting take down lever, DDR P38 style. These are not that common at all. The end result is beautiful. Congrats!

would you be referring to the take down lever being ribbed versus being knurled? i hadnt even noticed that before. but now that you mention it, i had to check my p38 and look at a bunch of pictures of lugers. my p38 does have the ribbed take down and i havent seen one luger that didnt have a knurled takedown. thats odd. do you know any more about this? like what company used them or what time period that had this style? or are you referring to it not being round, and having a square corner?

The entire shape is somewhat different.

These were made in limited numbers by the East-Germans during their refurbishing schemes of the 1950s. The levers are often found on the rare newly produced EG lugers, and sometimes on refurbished pre-1945 versions.

Great job!
I bet you are having a lot of fun with this one at the range!
Douglas