refurbishing
 

i have an old luger that i have considered refurbishing and i would like to hear some insight on how this may diminish its value. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jonathan, I will move this to either the repair section or new collectors section.

if yours is a mismatch or badly pitted then it would probably be fine.

Refinishing will make a collector gun a "shooter" that is now pretty. A "restoration" will destroy the collector value but be done much more proefessionally with corect bluing etc, and also cost twice as much or more.

Usually leaving them alone is best, but it depends on the shape it is in to start with.

Ed

thanks for the heads up. i guess i'd really like to take it to someone who knows what they are doing and have them put their hands on it and make recommendations. do you happen to know anyone in the north atlanta, ga area?

There is a real paucity of competent Luger restoration specialists today. It takes decades of experience and an encyclopedic knowledge of metalurgy, chemistry and history to be competent at this arcane skill.

Having said that, to answer your value question, it is generally accepted that a re-finished/restored piece is worth about what an unfutzed with example in 70% is worth.

Tom A