Picked up a shooter. Questions about Restoration.
 

Hello everyone, I picked myself up a Luger a couple of days ago in trade to use as a shooter. The Luger in question is a 1917 Erfurt with matching numbers except for the take down latch. Also the pistol has been nickel plated sometime in it's life.

Externally the pistol is in good shape with some pitting but the bore and rifling is in very good condition with slight pitting. I have ran two magazines through it so far and it functions fine.

I would like to know if anyone could tell me where I could send this pistol off for restoration to have it cleaned up and reblued?

restored or reblued ?

- reblue and taking nickle off is probably $350-$500

- restore is probably close to a $1000

I'd take it to the local chrome plating shop to have it stripped. It will come back as bare metal, then it goes off for re-finishing.
Depends on how much you want to throw at it: lots of metal re-surfacing for rust blue/straw (restored), or a down and dirty salt blue. Your choice.
Have fun. A great winter project.
dju

Thanks for the responses so far. But what I meant in my question was if there was someone I could send the pistol to get the work done?

Maybe contact Thor and see if he will take on the project?
Locally, at least, there is no one shop to do all jobs. The stripping is an electrical process, and most gunsmiths would not do it. The bluing is for a specialist too, not a plating shop.
No one ever said it was going to be easy...
dju

Or cheap!:crying:

Yes I know having it refinished won't increase the value. I just wanted to know if it was possible to have the pitting cleaned up and have it refinished to where it looks as it did when it left the factory back in 1917. This is strictly a shooter for me and I plan to hold onto this gun hence why I want to have it looking nice. :D

You can have the plating removed, and have the finish returned to be blue, it will look "nicer" but it can never be like it was when it left the factory because too much metal was removed by the aggressive buffing before the plating took place. The investment of time and money into this particular Luger is a personal decision. You could end up spending as much as another Luger might cost without having anything done to it. The choice is yours... Get some estimates and then make up your mind if it is worth it or not to you.

Yeah I just sent a P'M to Thor to see what he thinks and for a possible price quote to give me an idea on how much I would be spending. I'm in no hurry to get it done, just feeling things out.

I've had good luck with george Roghaar in Boca Raton, FL. He recently quoted me for a Luger job similar to yours. Likely around $350 to denickel, reblue, straw blue small parts.

http://gunblue.homestead.com/

Among the buffed and chromed lugers I've seen this one is not bad. I suggest that you enjoy shooting it while you save up for a nicer example. You can always sell this one on the forum.
KFS

I just thought I would update that I took the Luger to someone locally to see about having the nickel plating stripped. But the gunsmith believes the pistol isn't nickel plated just heavily buffed and polished steel. Anyone care to comment?

No wonder the silver appearance is so consistent!

Actually, it's already in this shape, then, keeping it in this shape is probably better than making it black. It looks not bad, especially in the last picture. Just my opinion.

After all I think it's a nice gun, if you wanted a good shooter for the range why should you bother about having it refurbished, I would just leave it like that,.
You haven't got to put it a window have you?

Honestly, I am by far a newbie, but I like the way it looks.

I'd go with Karl's advise. And John is right, " You could end up spending as much as another Luger might cost without having anything done to it."; this actually happened to me.. the wait time, the cost, the hassle of shipping and re-shipping. I would have been better off getting the same exact Luger (having gone already through the same process) finished, for a lot less. But as a shooter, IMHO, It's very unique and cool the way it is! :cheers:

btw, cool avatar!!