I was asked to clean a luger today.
 

An friend of mine had asked me to clean a luger that his great uncle had brought back from WW2.

I was not expecting much as this guy is strictly into modern guns. He brough the pistol to me today and when I opened the hard case found Mauser Banner with a chamber date of 1941. Over all the pistol is about 94 percent with scattered feckles. The gun is all matching including the mag. which is an extruded aluminum based one. The mag is marked with a P 08 on the side and the base has a number 1 in addition to the seria number The proofing is Eagle N on the right side and Eagle L on the left. The gun does have the sear safety. The barrel is not serialized but is caliber marked 8,84. The rear link pin is numbered. The grips are not numbered but are proofed. The firing pin is fluted and numbered. The front toggle is proofed Eagle N The trigger, safety lever, sear and take down lever are blued. The safety bar is in the white and the ejector is a kind of redish purple. The front sight base is proofed Eagle N on the very front of the base. The hold open latch is numbered.
The grips are proofed Eagle 655 but not numbered.
The gun passed the smell test, and maglight test
Does this sound correct and if so what would be a fair market value. The owners says he does not want to sell and I believe him at this time. but this is always subject to change with him. Thanks for any help Elmer.

Sounds like a nice 41 Banner Police Luger with one matched mag. I would rate value at $1300-$1700
These should be in the X or Y suffix range. Totally salt blued parts. Red color is very common on salt blued ejector (very harden part)
Still's "Third Reich Lugers" says "barrel MAY or MAY NOT be serialized and 5915 estimated procurement. Eagle N on front sight block, left receiver and left breech block" Serialized mag with number 1 is police marking. Sear safety is proper for ALMOST ALL police Lugers. Nice find!!

what's the maglite test?

The maglite test is to use the intense light from a maglite to look through the blue finish and detect the brown color underneath the blue. This indicate that the gun has not been refinished. This test can also be done in sunlight.

ahh.
Thank you
I'll be starting a new rash of experiments now!

:rolleyes: From what I understand it shows that it is an old blue job, as an example, if it was a 1910 and then was reblued in 1934, it would still have that old patina to it.

Not meaning to argue, <img border="0" alt="[oops]" title="" src="graemlins/oops.gif" /> but that is what was discussed before and I saved onto the FAQ. <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />

Ed