Although this is not a collectors dream,
 

i thinks it is an interesting gun.
A few days ago i got an 1934 "gothic S42 - K type". Bought it from an dealer here in lower austria who became the gun from an heritage.
Probably an "austrian" - german soldier, who serves in the german army at ww II.
The gun has complete matching numbers, oh sorry, complete, except the magazine and has all "gothic S" production stamps as prescribed at the "Vorschrift f�¼r die Stempelung der Pistole 08"
The mag is a folded, nickel plated, aluminium bottom typ magazine with an round feederspring, i thing its a matching type for the time the gun was made.
The p-08 has serial 676, so it is a early bird of the mauser oberndorf production.

It's a pity that the preowner had no heart for the gun, so the finish has afflicted. not only some patina, underneath the wooden grips, i found pure rust.
I disassembled, cleaned and oiled it (anyone with experience about rust removal ????. for the first try, i placed the disassembled gun in petroleum for two days, then cleaning it with an old toothbrush - achievement of rust removal is very poor....)

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc01203.jpg

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc01213_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc01222_copy1.jpg

I found an interesting detail. When checking serialnumbers i found 76 on one of the wooden grips (matching - bingo!), but the second woodgrip has number 67. Both had the "gothic S" stamped. For me it looks like the were made at the same time, not like a later repair of the grip
Could this be a production fault, had the man with the stamping iron transposed digits.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc01082.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc01083.jpg

:bigbye: :bigbye: :bigbye: :bigbye:

The rust removal is best accomplished with stainless steel wool and a good gun oil.

Wolfgang,
From your description, I expected to see it in worse shape. Looks very nice to me. Compare the 76 and 67 on the grips for size and font style. I think you are right that the numbers were transposed and the grip is original. Congratulations on a rare find.
Mike C.

Instead of using a very fine (0000) steel wool, the use of fine bronze wool (which is softer than steel) is better. You may have some difficulty finding this type of wool, but maybe a good supply store will have it in stock. Use a good gun oil instead of petrol which will attack the finish. You can soak the metal parts in diesel for a few hours which is not as aggressive as petrol, but make sure that you wipe off all the diseal and then apply gun oil.

Good luck,
Albert

Anyone know of a suppler of the bronze wool..?

We have gone over this subject before, I use nothing but "Big .45" pad, you can get it from Brownells, and a little oil for such cleaning, it will not in anyway harm any blue surface but will remove all rust and fouling, NEVER use steel wool, and I never tried bronze wool and would not know where to get it....but the "Big .45" pad is a very course brillo pad, for lack of a better term, and I use it on all my Colt SAA, Lugers and trust it so much I use it on all my customers gun with never a problem...

Howard.. can you help a lost norwegian finding this Big .45?
I got this close http://www.brownells.com/categories.aspx?c=4795

Never mind.... too many opinions.

Brownells does carry bronze wool, here is the link:

Bronze Wool

Steinar a PM was sent, for anyone wanting to invest $5 in the best gun cleaning pad you have ever used, will not harm the finest blue finish, do a google search for "Frontier big 45 metal cleaner" and you can order on line, I tell you boys you can use any solvent and or oil made for gun use, along with this pad, or really just a small portion of it and it will never harm the finish.....

Howard,

In my experience blued steel is harder than the Big 45 pad, but white steel where the blue has been worn away is softer and the pad will score it. What is your experience in this regard?

--Dwight

never happed, do not know why you experienced this, but say using it on a 50% blue, it never harmed the "white" part....I have wrapped a few strands around a brass bore brush, and while not advertised as a bore cleaner, work OK to remove leading.....about every 4 to 5 years, a local customer has a true 99++% commercial luger he has me clean and oil, not that he shoots it, but just keep it in check, Big 45 has never harmed the finish in perhaps 30 years of this.....but to recheck you, I have some "in the white" rifle barrels here, it will test it under magnification and see what happens.....best to you

I have had good luck with first cleaning the rust with gun oil and/or clp and a tooth brush. Then I use an ultrasonic cleaner and the gun comes out absolutely clean and the rust is gone. If the rust created some pitting, you will see it. This does not impact the bluing. If you take this approach, make sure you lubricate the gun very well after cleaning since it will have NO oil on it after the ultrasonic cleaning. Good luck

thx, which type of cleaning solvent you are using. i'm owning an ultrasoniccleaning device, but it did not remove the rusty portiones...

anyway will try to get the big.45 pad...

thx to all of you ....

:bigbye: :bigbye: :bigbye:

I'm sending a few to Steinar, not sure how hard it will be for you to order some, but worth the trouble

You can also loosen the rust with the mouth of an empty brass cartridge case.

Brownell's has bronze wool. Might take a while to get to Austria. A credit card should get it moving.
Bob

Wolf,
I heartily agree on the condition of the gun. Please don't let it become a victim of "rebluemania." I prefer a day's immersion in BREAK-FREE and a cleaning of the affected area with a new bronze brush. A clean toothbrush and boiled linseed oil will restore the grips. Congratulations on your find!