In looking at various photographs of Lugers, I think the darkness of the checkered areas is partly due to the strawing process and partly due to lighting.
When I look at original finish Lugers, the strawed parts usually appear completely strawed though the checkered areas appear darker, especially the mag release.
A lot of this is due to the lighting and photography. I offer three examples, the first from Joe Salter, the second is my Luger in natural light with a bright background, and the third is my Luger again on a dark background with a flash.
In the right lighting my mag release looks almost black. With the flash on a dark background it looks bright gold.
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