Bird of Prey Luger
 

A while back, I was doing a restoration on a 1915 DWM Police Luger. I made a few BEFORE pictures of the Luger in its condition when it arrived. I then did a DURING restoration picture after I stripped the bluing off. I was astounded to see how the original bluing had CLOAKED or hidden the existing pitting under the bluing, just like a Klingon Bird of Prey cloaks itself to hid from its enemies. Here are some pictures of the Luger BEFORE, DURING and AFTER restoration. http://members.rennlist.org/lugerman/TPWP4.JPG
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Ted, Fascinating! Did you do any metal work after the discovery of what's underneath or simply re blue it?

Wonderful transformation as always.

Believe it or not Jerry, that Luger was Tom Armstrong's. A great man and friend. I clean them up as best I can prior to reblue. After all, we dont want the pitting to continue. Remember this old P.38, you had to fix it before you blued it.
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Ted, Yes of cours but what I was getting at is the luger looks good with the original blue..at least the cloaking device was on! Then you show it with the old blue off. and the imperfections are quite evident. Then..did you simply re blue it and the imperfections disappeared again under the new blue without metal work such as polishing?

Again..a stunning transformation on the P-38 And Tom 's passing was a great loss to many of us..Truly a great man and a good Friend!

No Jerry, I did NOT simply reblue, I never do that. Part of my job is getting the metal to look as good as possible and like it did at the factory before it was blued the first time. I think what I was trying to say was the are almost always worse that you think when you look at them with the bluing on them, it is deceptive. See the DURING picture of the P.38, all the damage is fixed before the bluing starts, same with the above Luger. I guess I should have posted a DURING picture on the Luger too so you could see therepairs prior to bluing. Sorry for the confusion.

Ted, a truly masterful job! I hope you were able to requote the job after stripping!!:rolleyes:

Absolutely stunning work!

I am curious! Looking at the P.38 before and just before picture. The first one with the pitting, how do you actually go about removing the pitting so visible pits are shown. Are there cases where you have had to add metal back due to the depths of the pitting, which were removed by so sort of mechanical means, and leaving to little base metal left?

What I'm kind of getting at is have you have to some welding of some sort to restore the base metal to a proper thickness? and if so, how did the part being welded on hold up after applying that amount of heat, which would be as little as possible. But even the smallest amount of heat by welding can be a bit much for such a small part.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Ted's answer is a trade secret. He is a highly sought after master craftsman. I think I have known him since before he blued his first Luger. :)

he definitely has a great skill in the art of refinishing the old relics. Looking at that P.38 with the original pitting and then the just before bluing picture. That frame looks straight as can be and the markings look like they did from the get go. Definitely an art to it and he has mastered it.

Thor, I seen some of the other guns you have posted and the are all very nicely done. I wouldn't give out trade secrets either. I was just curious about the welding, if there was any. I do a great deal of welding inspections, usually on coded tanks, vessels or other types of equipment. so I just pondered that thought of welding on a luger or old gun like these. If it was even possible and still hold up in its integrity.

Exceptional work.

Have seen a few Gale Morgan restored guns, I would say this end result is at his skill level!

I bought a set of DVD "Tank Overhual" showing collectors restoring tanks. Amazing DVD! But I bet people who can restore tanks cannot restore Lugers, and people who can restore Lugers cannot restore tanks :) Very different jobs, at least, the tools used are very different --

I don't know how Thor performed welding. Saw some micro-welding equipment in workshop. They perform welding work under microscopes. The heat input is so small, even area less than 1m/m away is not affected.

Here is Teds site~~~~~http://members.rennlist.com/lugerman/

Bluing can sure hide a lot of crap. I have polished several guns that looked like they just had some high spot wear, but the amount of small pits and scratches I found after stripping almost made me regret that I ever started... :eek: Fortunately, some minor imperfections will be hidden again after bluing, but you can't get away with much if the rest of the gun is perfect.

Sometimes welding is required, sometimes not. HUB or Neil Keller of Kustom Ballistics does great low temp welding. He just sent me an early AE Luger that someone had cut a hole in the trigger frame which he fixed. I will now rust blue over the repair. Part of my advantage is I have talents to draw from on my restorations, Hugh, Jerry,Neil, Les, Tom H, Brian Powley, GT all add to the team effort on these great Lugers. I am so fortune and blessed to know these skilled people. John S and John D help me on my website and computer issues, what a thrill to have these kind people help me.

:)

Quite excellent Dave, outstanding!