Thor's Strawing Service
 

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Many of you may recall this pistol from some time back. It was in a terrible state when I acquired it. Ted and his cohorts worked many long hours to bring it back from the grave. We were fortunate enough to meet with him yesterday and pick up the pistol and I fell in love with it all over again (even with my current bought of the flu)...

I moved the pictures here, since I get onto folks all the time about hosting here, I don't think I should allow exceptions with my friends! :D


Very nice, knew that Ted's final work would be unbelievable!

Ed

Another fine example of Ted Greens excellent work...I have never seen anyone good enough to compare it with. Perhaps there is someone but I don't know of them. It sure does change a pistol into something to be proud of!
I was talking with John Lockwood yesterday, he just recieved an Erfurt Artillery back from Ted and couldn't say enough about how beautiful it is now.
Jerry Burney

Ed, I just didn't want to intrude into your band width... You or anyone else is free to use them with or without credit (though I did stomp on a guy last year on Auction Arms who posted my 1911 for sale there -- of course I did verify it was still in my safe before alerting the site admin).

I just had to "shrink" em, as they were over 500 kb's and now are less than 100.

Ed

Gorgeous. Just beautiful...

No wonder people are willing to wait two years to get something back from him. It looks more like an unfired, 1970's Mauser import. Yes, something to be proud of, indeed... :)

You know, I just reread my post and I wanted to make sure that the comment about waiting for Thors excellent work wasn't a slam of any kind. For him to be that busy is testament to his fine workmanship.

It read a little harsh and that's not the way I intended for it to come out. Mea culpa...

Steve,

This was an extremely difficult gun to do. It normally doesn't take him that long. There was a major issue with the back strap having been cut down flat to attach a stock lug. It was nearly paper thin in areas. It was really butchered, but there was no way to tell how badly this pistol was until Ted got into it. I think he bit off more than he could chew, but he obviously pulled it off. It was extraordinary craftsmanship to build that rear strap back up again "from nothing", restoring the contours and ultimately the gun.

Really? Holy moly.... that's some serious welding. I'm impressed. I didn't see it before nor had I read anything about it. That's some impressive stuff there.

Yeah, never had any doubts about skill or craftsmanship, I'll say that. It's hard to believe the original piece he restores can be over a hundred years old...

wow

that is a really sexy looking luger.

man you guys have some nice looking pistols.

I give praise to the Lord God Almighty that gives me the skills to do this work. Also remember I have a superb support staff of skilled craftsman that do a great job and each have a part in the final product. I thank Don Hamilton first and foremost as he probably spend the most time on this gun. The person that owned it previously, somewhere in this guns history cut the frame FLAT where a stock lug would have been then drilled holes through what little metal remained. Take a look at any non stock lug Luger and see just how little metal there would be if you cut the surface flat. So Don had little to work with and the danger was added to much heat to cause the whole fragile assembly to collapse and go into a molten mess. His patience and perserverence is to be commented. Finally after MANY
many many attempts at the rebuild, adding small amount of metal at a time, then bringing it back to me, then me reshaping it, he would take it back and repeat the process. At this low temperature, air pockets abound and it tough as heck to get rid of them, you cut them out, then do it again. Finally he did a lot of the reshaping himself. WOW, what a job. Anyway, the gun was very nice and the strawing, high polish DWM Rust bluing really set it off with high polish fire bluing. Hugh Clark outdid himself again with
making some old grips look really new again and WOW they were beautiful and a nice reddish walnut color. GT did the mag work and replaced the spring with one of his superb springs. Tom Heller came through in the clutch with some nice replacement parts. So you see, a team effort to be sure. Thanks for the compliments! I must tell you I was sure glad to see if finally finished.

Hi Glen,

Could you post a good close-up on the polished area under the thumb safety lever ?

Would like to see how Ted's work as advanced in this detail...

Here you go Pete: But now look, you made me scratch it when I moved the lever!

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Thanks, Glen...for the follow-up photo.

Yours is a really lovely gun !

Here is the photo...I changed some coloring :

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Wow, that's really something. I'm impressed... I've done a bit of welding and I'd never even have tried that.

Here's before and an in progress shots, btw -- those are the original grips.
The only part(s) missing when I got it were the take/down, and the front site had been replaced with a bead sight.

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Thank you for posting the before shots. It really is a striking transformation.

Do you still have the bead sight? Would you sell it? I would like to have one to put with my little accumulation of Luger accessories.