early toggles
 

early parabellums aren't exactly my cup of tea, so bear with me when I ask: what is the purpose of the toggle lock on the right side of the toggle on dished models? Also, were any dished toggles manufactured without this device? I have a pistol with dished toggles, but no lock, I'm guessing they were modified from later toggles, but I have no idea at all. They happen to be commercial toggles (crown N) should that make any difference.

WB, The M1900 luger toggle lock was a carry over from the original Borchardt design, where it may have been necessary. When it was found that cartridge ignition actually pushed down the toggle in the luger, rather than trying to open it, the toggle lock was eliminated. TH

Waschbaer,
If you have an early (1900) Luger with dished toggles but has no toggle lock and was never machined for one, you have a very uusual Luger indeed. If it is one of the modern commemorative Lugers made in 2000 from stainless steel, they were made up merely by machining a "dish" on the back portion of standard toggle knobs to make them look like the 1900 style. These modern repros do not have the toggle lock.

No, the gun isn't modern (not stainless & heavily buffed), but I'll venture to guess that someone liked the look of the early toggles, and so just modified a wwi or wwii toggle. This is on a parts gun, so I really wasn't sure what the heck it was built out of.