How do you turn This into THIS?
 

The Answer is THOR!! An amazing turn around!!

super nice!
 

Thor just keeps getting better and better!!! As I said, super nice!... congrats on a nice luger! Best to all, til...lat'r....GT:cheers:

Very nice transformation.

Congratulations to Thor really a nice work, too bad I don't live in the States.

Absolutely beautiful, I would feel very privileged to hold one of Thor's re-creations and get a close up look at it. :thumbup:

Lon

This is my very first Luger that I bought as a "shooter" but it had all matching numbers, including grips, but minus a matching mag. After purchasing a few more, I decided that it was a sin to leave it as is. The comment "life's too short to shoot an ugly gun" got to me, so even with advice here to not have it restored, I liked the ideas of having Thor breath new life to it. :)

Here are a few more before/after pictures.

:thumbup:unglaublich!

wow. great restoration :cheers: what does a similar project run about? :confused:

I don't believe that THOR has a standard price for restoration. The cost is determined by what he has to start with... Get in touch with him directly and have plenty good photos to share with him...

Ted (THOR) has a standard price list on his web site http://members.rennlist.com/lugerman/
But as John stated, price may vary depending on the condition of the gun and amount of repair work required.

Ron was so kind to post his site! His real name is Ted Green. I've known for over ten years. He lives in Rio Rancho, New Mexico with his wife Natalie. His work is his passion, perfection and full time devotion. Ted has a facination with the Viking Gods as well of his own! Thus His handle! 'Thor'~~~

The main thing about that piece is that you are pleased with it. I like it too and think it is a great restoration. Hope it's beauty hasn't deterred your shooting.

I may need to re-look my wife's baby Luger for an botox job....

Gary

Thanks for your comments Gary but I do intend to shoot it more. I may, as a concession to it's originality, replace the original firing pin with another that I have laying around somewhere? Just to be sure that I don't break it.

I've shot mostly "White Box" Winnie 124 grn ammo in it before but I might just" do up" some light reloads for it.

I've also hand fitted the aftermarket grips for it an am looking for advice as to a type of finish to put on them. What came on them originally, BLO, Tung oil or something like that?

Thanks guys, and Thor, with all due respect to Mohammed Ali, YOU ARE THE GREATEST!!!!!:thumbup:

If that were my Luger(and I wish that it was), and I was going to continue to shoot it, I would not only replace the firing pin and FP spring retainer, but also the extractor. In my experience with shooting these fine old handguns, those three items are very prone to breakage.

This was the really bad one! http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=27624

BLO would be my guess, check with Hugh Clark, he can tell you what it does to the shade/color/tint versus tung oil which i think he uses a lot and I believe Tung oil is darker. I love the light color they are now. BLO when applied will soak partially into the wood but you dont want to leave excess in the checkering as it will harden into crystals. When I apply it on the grips, I usually let them set for about 5 minutes then blot out the excess. Hugh's email is hhclark@wildblue.net

Thanks Ted. I do have experience with BLO, Tung and raw linseed oil finishes with the M1 Garands I've been building, restoring and preserving over the past 15 years. I will contact Hugh however. I also like the light colored wood as contrast to the bluing.
Later...

Forgive me, I'm new to this, what type of bluing is that. I've seen the words "straw" bluing and "Rust" bluing and "cold" bluing being using in different forums..

Leif,

Welcome to the forum, I'll try to help answer.

Bluing of any style is applied to at least the exposed outer surfaces of a gun to give it some protection from "ordinary" rust. Technically, I think all bluing is actually a controlled surface rusting. Rust bluing is a process that by repeated applications of chemicals, a film of oxide is built up on the steel, this done by hand. Dip or hot bluing is when the steel parts are immersed in a volume of hot chemical bath to create the coating. Cold bluing is a process of applying the chemicals without heat--commonly used to touch up small areas of a finish, and not as deep or durable in result.

"Straw" refers to the color that the surface molecules of a steel part turn when heated. It is a relatively low temperature in this case, somewhere around 370 degrees F. Higher temperatures yield different colors. A bit higher temp yields "fire blue", and you'll occasionally encounter parts thus treated, especially in custom work. Keep heating and you'll go through a spectrum of colors--purple/plum/violet, finally ending in black.

The heating process is arrested at a specific temperature to establish each color. To refresh the straw of a Luger's appropriate parts really helps its appearance. There are "stickies" on the site to explain all these processes in more detail.

Leif.......to help answer your question, the finish on my Luger is "salt bluing". If you check Thors website you will see where he lists the proper bluing for each particular Luger. Mine is a 39 Code 42 Mauser.