Interarms Mauser?
 

Are the Mauser Parabellums imported by Interarms Rust Blued?

To me they appear to be highly polished and salt blued, but let's see what the others have to say.
dju

Salt blued for sure.

It's well made. The blue quality is similar to Mauser M1930 (I don't have a S/42, so can only compare with M1930) -- metal polished, covered by near black salt blue.

Mauser's magic is not they could make a few nice guns. Many gun makers could make a few nice ones when the production volume is low, including Norinco. Mauser's magic was that they could make very high quality guns in large volume. Price was a little bit high, but not out of range. Interarms was merely $265 initially. Collectors "cooked" them to higher price, but extra money did not go to Mauser :)

Mine are both salt blued. Very nicely done.

The ad depicts my Mauser perfectly. SO rust blued, where's Vlim?

Dipped Salt Blue. Blueing liquid was made by Brunox.
Small parts are strawed.

Factory bluing on MP samples I have seen - all P08 frame examples - looks black shiny highly polished on most surfaces with nice contrast relieved areas - like inside the frame recoil ramps that look maybe bead blasted or maybe bare casting texture

bluing looks almost like dense high gloss paint but of very high quality - uniform overall except sideplate which maybe 30% frequency look slightly reddish - rarely any other reddish tints on the frame or receiver

bluing seems thicker than typical salt blue - anyone had success actually removing this blue from metal without some form of sanding / polishing ?

overall - how best to prep metal for conversion to a rust blue reblue ?

thanks
Bill

A typical excellent example of Mauser's rust blue gun was so called "Flatside C96" by collectors, a product of 1899-1901. Since the darn thing has a large flat surface, the finish quality was amazing.... Chinese called it "mirror top".... the finish was actually satin, not reflective like a mirror, but was made so fine. However, this flat gun fears scratches, after scratching a lot, it lost its beauty.

alvin, a "working" gun should lose its beauty....if you want a museum quality specimen, it's true use was never tested in war...to me, something would be missing in collecting unused guns........

I collect guns from 10% to 99.9%. Many gun owners call their nicer guns "museum quality", that's not right. Museum also has different types, and their guns should match their purpose. History museums display many well used guns from revolutionary era or war era, some were used by famous people, or used in historical event. So, they focus on provenance of the gun. That makes lot of sense. Firearm museum would more lean towards gun condition than its previous owner. Like the one operated by NRA. That also makes sense. Some museums are mixed types.

Regarding "tested in war", almost all BH imported from China in 1980s were tested in wars, including factory engraved pistols. Typical BH user in 1930s carried 20 clips (i.e. 200 rounds) of ammo with him. That's not a sidearm anymore. I have never seen other pistol user carrying so much ammo in action -- probably no chance to use that anyway, so just a few rounds in magazine or holster. But in environment without many heavier weapons, pistols had a role to play in battlefields. Unfortunately, US gun owners do not appreciate that, paying gunsmiths to rebore and reblue those guns with lots of energy, damaged those old guns instead of preserving them. That's unfortunate. But who knows, that's probably due to the existing volume is still too big. Many years later, situation may change.

I checked this one in hand, it's NIB with all goodies.

http://www.amoskeagauction.com/106/398.html

Final price is also fair. Its new owner must love this one. The 6" edition looks much better in hand than on picture.

That is very nice, and reasonable price. I would have been tempted myself... :thumbup:

(I would argue that it is not straight-grip 'Swiss model', but I like finger bump of front gripstrap). ;)

What does "BH" stand for?

BroomHandle