[Herb]

Mauserlugers, I disagree with your post about 50 year old references. I feel these books are invaluable as the writers actually held the Lugers in their hands, examined them and reported their findings. This was in the days before 'boosting' and fakery was the norm. I see posts that Costanzo is wrong because someone else said so, or has (re) written a book based upon the knowledge of those before them, this applies to some of the other writers too. Just where is the more current information coming from? I suppose that thousands of Lugers have become available in the last few years that prove the information that came before is inaccurate, and that the authors have actually held the items in their hands and have the expertise to decide if they are original or not. Whenever I see this I am suspect as to the verifiable source of this 'new' information. If I feel that it is significant, I also feel it is my right to request the source of this information, rather than to take it at face value just because someone has published a book, or books, on the subject. Anyone can write a book given enough resources, but is the source of those resources accurate? I'll go with the 'oldie but goodies' anytime, mainly because they were written before fakes were the norm. I feel that it has been proven more than once on this forum that even forensic testing is needed to determine if an item is faked or not, not many of us are willing to go to that extent to verifiy what is, or is not, original, I sure am not, but some are all too willing to accept, without question, the writings of the more recent authors on the subject of Lugers without giving any thought to the credence of their writings. PROVE to me why Harry Jones, Kenyon, Datig, Costanzo, Reese, Walters and others are wrong! Until then, I will trust to the older examiners/authors who reported what they found at the time they found it. I had intended to avoid involvement in this thread but felt that your comment deserved a opposing view. If these 'newly' found experts can't stand the heat, perhaps they sould stay out of the kitchen. If I wrote a book, I would welcome comments of any nature, it would assist me in developing information based upon these comments. I regret the loss of some of these experts based upon their lack of tolerance of being questioned, but that is their choice, not mine.