mlm

In 1996 in Virginia there was for sale a Naval P04 with nickel finish, ivory grips with inlaid Wermacht's Eagle (outstretched wings) over the swast in circle (just like a Heer cap eagle), and heavily engraved in a familiar German pattern. It was discounted as a fantasy piece unrelated to the military but it had the aging and quality one would associate with a German presentation piece. I have seen a photo of a 4inch luger of similar design but it had a finger rest left grip I would not associate with pre-1945 grip designs. There were presentation 7.65 Walthers and there are duralumin Walthers and Sauers that LOOK nickeled but are not. It is perfectly reasonable to expect presentation lugers that could be nickeled--I simply have not yet seen one that has a solid provenance and that is probably because of the few super rare lugers I have seen.


One thing all the factory contracted or finished (probably contracted as the factory would not want to maintain the equipment for a handful of pistols) nickel pistols appear to have is heavy engraving--these were special pieces.


Regular production pistols--identifiable by the military inspection stamps on the receiver--probably do not exist in nickel finish because they would not be sent through regular military inspection channels and would not conform to finish rules. These were special pieces and would be commercial or special pulls from production runs. I think the WaA or C/L inspection stamps would suggest GI nickeling.


Just some opinions