Rare and unusual?
 

In the Luger drum repair business, you get to see a lot of rare stuff, both from the inside and out? Well, this past week, I got to work on what I think might be a pretty rare item in an already rare field?
The drum I am referring to, had considerable corrosion and was a dull and dirty silver color that I attributed to wear, use, and neglect! Perfect for me to repair! It had a few issues as it was worse on the inside then on the outside! The main spring was solid rust and broken into about a dozen pieces.. But the feature that started to strike me as unusual was the light silver color that was consistent both inside and outside all the way thru the drums construction? From previous experience with plating, I have to believe the whole drum, was factory plated with "Zinc" maybe in an effort to combat the corrosion that eventually brought this drum down? Anyway, it was neat as all hell, and restored nicely to a working drum! Cool stuff, just thought you'd all like to know... best, til….lat'r....GT...:cheers:

De-rusted with phosphoric acid(naval jelly) = the color you describe.

Without pictures it didn't happen! :);)

That's kind of up to the owner!
 

Hi Don, I felt that a full blown text would be at the discretion of the owner, as it was just submitted for repair and not really in my wheel house for publication... :jumper:... but, it was definitely plated, as it was the same on the layered parts inside the mainspring cup... It was the same zinc type of plating found on the .22 conversion box parts.... I agree, I should have taken pics, maybe I can talk the owner into doing so... best to you, til...lat'r.....GT....:thumbup:

very interesting - I know these are from WW1 time-frame, but the Walther PP / PPK used some different coatings, makes me wonder if someone wanted to try on the trommel?