Fraktur Characters & Fonts
 

My eyes are not the best, and fraktur letters are weird to begin with...But I did find a site with fraktur fonts, which I could load into my font library and print out to match up with any fraktur letters I find on Lugers or whatever...

...Except that there seem to be a *lot* of fraktur fonts... :o

http://www.morscher.com/3r/fonts/fraktur.htm

Which one of these fonts most closely resembles the Luger lettering???

Actually, none of the Fraktur fonts are like Luger lettering. The serial number small letter font is much like English cursive. Fraktur is much more angular. The only Fraktur-like marking on a Luger that quickly comes to mind is the so-called "scriptic" S on the early K-date Mausers.

Ron, there are also the capital letters identifying individual inspectors in the Imperial-era "crown over ..." acceptance stamps. They look a lot like the ones labeled "Fraktur" in the link but I really haven't studied them.

Don,
Of course you are correct. I was only thinking of numbering and didn't even think about proofs or acceptance marks. I shouldn't post past my bed time!

So, getting back to postino's question, it appears that none of the "true type fonts" avialable in his samples replicate the lettering found on Lugers. Those Fraktur fonts lack the small vertical lines that embellish the upper case letters. The inspector Crown/Letter characters more closely resemble "Blackletter" (sometimes called "Gothic") fonts which, ironically, are usually associated with "olde English".

I incounter Fraktur fonts all the time with Imperial issued bayonets. Sometimes that is the only mark on the bayonet or trench knife.

Thanks, Ron! That was what I was thinking of - having two commercials, inspectors marks never entered my mind... :p

"English Cursive" wasn't in my font library, so I went looking, and found that "Wrexham Light" font, in italics, closely resembles the "n" and "k" on my two commercial Lugers.

I'm going to print out a lowercase stream so I can compare it to gun show Lugers...or beer hall Lugers... :D

I'm not sure which letters the original question referred to, the acceptance stamps or serial number suffixes. In the case of the former the marks are Fraktur. I believe one would identify the serial number suffixes as Sutterlin (sp) script.

George,
The Fraktur characters avalible in modern true type fonts for computers are simplifications of the original characters on Luger acceptance stamps. So, although you are correct, there isn't a Fraktur font equivalent to the Luger markings available (at least as far as I have been able to find). In the case of serial number suffixes, Sutterlin is not even close. For example, a Sutterlin "e" looks like "n".

George,

S�¼tterlin is a very distinctive and radical script. A couple letters show up as mysterious letter suffixes on some WWII magazines, but these are not the common lower-case suffix letters we usually see.

--Dwight