1906 W+F Bern Grips...
 

Have seen the 06/24 Bern lugers with the wooden grips left natural as well as having the wooden grips varnished/shellaced. Several in the Bobba book also have a high-gloss finish to the wooden grips.

Do folks know if this varnish/shellac work was done in the Bern factory or later by amourers and/or owners ?

Is there a preferance ? Any difference in value ?

Regards,

Pete...

Pete,
Many of the Photos that you see in illustrations are taken from museum or private collections.
Some of these collections have been treated the same as museum pieces.
I'm saying that they have been cleaned to the natural surface and coated with Museum Wax, A very high Carnuba content wax that the Curators Swear by as the best protection that is available for the preservation of most items.
After several coating and polishing with with soft cloth the wood takes on a shine that would be the pride of any house wife on her prized table top.
That may be the case in what you see.
ViggoG

I can agree with ViggoG, unfortunatedly I didn�´t see the book. I don�´t belive the W+F factory did spent time to shellac the grips.
The 06/W+F (06/24 Bern)was produced and designed in the Waffenfabrik Bern after a delivering stop from DWM in WWI. The finish on these Pistols insn�´t as good compared with DWM�´s.
The rims on the grips are to save work and to save money, (not as the rims in the prototypes) bekause it is more easy to checker on a plain surface than checkering all over the whole grips. Therefore they won�´t spend time to give the grips a shellac finnish. This finnish was made probably from someone owning the Pistol.

I have a copy of the W+F drawing for the grips. I will check to see if a finish is called out. This might take awhile since the drawing is in German and I don't read German. If it were in Polish I would have better luck. Will get back to you sometime today hopefully.

Checked out the grip drawings. Cannot determine even what the material callout is let alone if a finish is called out. The dimensions are clear but the rest is Greek I mean German to me.