Luger frame ears
 

Are there any hard and fast rules about the shape of the bottom of the frame "ears" if that's what you call them. Some i have seen are curved smoothly, tapering just a bit and some are crooked and ground nearly through. Is this just because of the hand fitted/tooled nature of the Luger? Does it mean anything?

Never saw one as rough as that.

Yes there is a definite specification and it is an important part of the function; certainly not hand done nor variable.

The one in the picture must have been monkeyed with post mfg. IMO.

That poor Luger in the picture must have been roughly messed about, I think.

If you think about the function of the luger, it's critical that the toggle assy begins to open at the right moment, which is initiated by the side knobs of the rear toggle link contacting the frame in this area. TH

Brien,

Tom is absolutely correct.

You ask about hard and fast rules. Yes, as far as the ramp position and angle are concerned. And if you look at drawing in various books on the subject, you can see this. This angle and its relative location are sacrosanct.

BUT.. there is no hard and fast rule as to how the angle of the ear ramp intersects with the body (left horizontal rail) area of the frame. It just says that it must taper/flow into it.

If you look at the tooling of the various manufacturers, each has an individual signature.

Krieghoff was the best at making the transition from the ramp angle to the left horizontal frame rail, i.e. fewest irregularities in the flow from ear ramp to rail..

Simson was the worst. Although I have NEVER seen anything as bad the machining on this frame.

DWM and Mauser were somewhere in between.

Now, one must be careful because tools wear and jigs change and there are variations caused by acceptable tolerances. So the worst HK might look worse than the best Mauser, etc.

But this one, looks bad, but "within the extremes of acceptable" since it must have passed first stage inspection. IMVHO.

Clearly, I am not an expert by any means as to the machinery, tooling etc. used in the period. But such issues as we see here could be caused in the rail cut was made going front the rear and the ramp cut was made going rear to front. Any out of exactness would produce intersections such we observe. And, remember Tom's comment: What is critical is the position and angle of the ramp. The intersection with the rail is not a part of function and is therefore not particularly important. Pretty?? Not so much.

BTW, Gibson's HK book has an excellent treatise on manufacturing differences among the various manufacturers.

Hope this helps,

John

PS: Same issue exists on the right side but because of the design, the problem is slightly different.

JR

This discussion motivated me to post a Frame Ear study:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=35583