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Unread 10-21-2013, 03:21 PM   #26
Sonofeugene
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Thanks all for your kind remarks. (FYI, my name's not Jack. Just for the record, don'cha know.)

In picking my user name, I figured that since it was my father's gun, that I'd just go by sonofeugene and keep some annonymity that way. Interesting that this other Eugene fellow is Russian. My father's parents were from Russia. They got the hell out of there around 1919 as the revolution spread then they fled further and further west. They finally settled in Sacramento, CA where my father was born. My grandfather, who was named Vasilly and later took the name William, I only have one faint memory of. My grandmother lived until I was in my mid 20's so I have plenty memories of her and her fairly thick Russian accent.

The grips are made of individual stripes of translucent but also colored plastic. I'm going to guess early colored Plexiglass. The back side of the grips are painted with a somewhat metallic silver paint which is likely what gives the yellow stripes a bit of a gold look to them. And yes, they're very unique. I thought about putting the original grips back on the gun, but my father went to a lot of trouble to make them so I've decided they'll stay. Especially if it's a shooter as it seems like it will be. (I'll be paying Krausewerks in San Mateo a visit in the near future.)

I did some exhausting seaches on the internet regarding sweetheart grips as well as colored gun grips and found nothing like the grips on my dad's Luger. I think it's safe to say they're one of a kind. Well made, too. And to make sure I don't damage them with some gun cleaning solvent, etc., I remove them when cleaning the gun.

I have another pistol of his (well, two actually) that has the more traditional sweetheart grips on them. He had a photo of his kid sister under one of the clear grips and it's possible that he made them while he was in Europe because I've got a military paper saying it and the 1934 Beretta are legal war trophies. The pistol with the sweetheart grips is a WWI Izarra in 7.65mm that my father said he'd never fire 'cause he was afraid the thing would blow up on him. In checking the gun's background, it was made by one of the better Spanish makers so it may be OK to fire after a thorough going over, but I have no plans to do so. It was one of the guns made for the French during WWI so I figure he picked it up while he was in France. And the Beretta he may have picked up just before the invasion of the south of France because his unit was stationed there in Italy in preparation for the invasion.

Thanks again for all your feedback and after I get an expert to look at the gun in person, I'll let you all know what they said. And I'm thinking he'll likely say what you guys have been saying.

Cheers!
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