New Blue
 

Ok I bought this Luger from Legacy. They had doubts that the blue was original. Its an F code 1939 Banner with the Simson side plate. Fairly rare but he reduced the price to $1750 and gave me free shipping. So I bought it. When it
got here the finish was terrible. Looked like it was spray painted with flat black then gone over with 0 steel wool. It
shoots perfect but made me want to gag every time I looked at it. So being a shooter/newbie type, I found a gunsmith to solve the problem. His shop was kinda cluttered but he opened a drawer and had hundreds of the stones in all different grits and I knew he was my guy. I told him I wanted it blued but not to remove all the markings. He said that is the way he did them. Anyway my choices for a bluejob were $700 for rust blue
and $300 for whatever he did. I went for the $300. Its a nice blackish like it was but none of the scratches. I love it now.

This is before.

Well, it certainly looks better than it did before. Thanks for sharing your bluing story. So, what happens next?

Probably just stick it in the safe with my other two....But I feel better about how it looks now.
I did order one of those ATI 1911's. Should round out my week when it gets here.:)

I am a little bit surprised. Your posts were usually focusing on cost... in my imagination, items coming in should be very value/cost efficient (because you care).. But looks like that's not the reality :) There is a gap between talking and practice. But that's normal, no worry. In the long run, that gap will shrink.

Well Alvin, I just bought a $345 Philippines 1911, that is pretty cost efficient. Has nothing to do with getting my pistol reblued, but I'm kinda frugal.

Paul,
for once I agree with Alvin completely!:D

You surprised me with that re-blue, but it is a decent job- glad you got what you wanted- and made up for it with that "cheap" 1911.:cheers:

Yeah Don I didn't realize I was that predictable.:) Its like a really nice truck and you get a big door ding. I can never look at it without focusing on that spot. A bad blue job is the same to me. I can deal with worn battle scarred but I could never have one of those dipped blued guns no matter what the price or history behind it. If it was dipped blued and Hitlers personal carry pistol, I would have to reblue it. But that's just me.

Paul, Mauser Banner's were NOT rust blued.

Yeah I couldn't afford a rust blue job anyway. I think he used the stuff like on Youtube where they dip it in the stuff that kills tree roots. Whatever that process is. He does both kinds and I am really pleased at how it turned out. Now its the same color but nice with no scratches. I was surprised when he showed me it had some pits in the barrel and the side plate was kinda dinged up. He fixed all of that and you can't tell it. He is a good gunsmith.

Paul

Definitely an improvement. I can easily understand your feeling on this Luger when it arrived. I have to take pride in my "things", and if not, then fix it or get rid of it. Life is too short to have an ugly Luger!!

Yeah probably childish to want it to look better. I only have three. One is a reblued 1920's, a rework that is worn and this one. The rework being worn doesn't bother me but they thought this one was already a reblue so it was a candidate for a reblue again since it looked so crappy. When I shoot them at the range they attract a lot of attention and that one kinda embarrassed me. Maybe a tad vain on my part but Hey.

If want to do it, then, just do it. Life becomes boring when every dollar spending is counted.

We can talk about being frugal a little bit. That makes us feel better. In real world practice, being very frugal could be uncomfortable, unless it's already being habitual.

One must be "frugal" on some things; so he can "waste" money on other stuff!:D

Paul is very frugal, until he wants something.:cheers:

Aw come on Don....4 ar15's 3 Lugers, and 3 1911's....I have the minimum on a collection. I am trying to pace myself on spending. There was one more Luger at
Legacy's I wanted but didn't buy so I think I'm doing pretty good. :)

To Puretexan, you will enjoy that cheap ATI 1911. They are very good pistols. I have one too and it is accurate and strong.

The feeling on cost is somehow related with volume and especially total cost in collection. At the beginning, when I spent $1000 or $2000 on a collector gun, I felt that's huge amount money. Slowly but gradually, more and more guns came, that feeling faded away. After hundreds of thousands of dollars being put into guns, even adding another $5000 gun into collection did not have any feeling of "it's a big ticket item" anymore. Not because I had more cash to spend later, I simply lost that feeling. That's a sign of gun saturation.

At this low volume, no worry. What needed is expansion.

Suppose to get it today so kinda excited. Just wanted a cheap one to change parts
on. Hopefully this one will give me the opportunity I'm looking for and not break the
bank.

Paul

Alvin seems like its the search that is the fun part, and not the getting. Pretty anticlimactic when its finally in your hands.

Oh and the last thing I spent a couple hundred thousand on , has a roof and not a magazine.