Ron, Jerry and Viggo,
You are right about my including Viggo in my comments. I debated about including that paragraph in expressing my frustrations. I compromised myself during my writing by erasing his name but that probably was not good enough.
Jerry, I have never critisized you because, even though I have never seen your work, I consider you one of those skilled craftsmen who know what they are doing. As a matter of fact, I have a few artillery holster rigs that I think I will be sending to you sometime.
Its just that sometimes I see such terrible butchering of guns by amateurs just to make $25 more on a gun or even just to be able to sell it that I get real upset and I have to let off some steam.
I bought a navy Luger off of a guy that I don't like once for $1300. The guy I bought it off of probably paid less than that at an auction. That was a low price even a few years ago. I saw no pitting, the bore was good and the gun was all original. I turned it over to Ken Karsted and he did a miracle on it. He turned that pigs ear into a fine purse. I have shown that gun to the guy who sold it to me just to rub his nose in it. What a change in his attitude! I have shown it to other collectors during discussions about restorations and I now know that I should not feel any shame about doing it. That gun was considered junk when I bought it and evenually it would have vanished. I consider that gun a treasure now. Someday, someone else is going to own it and they too are going to consider it a treasure.
Now don't get me wrong. I very much do think that Ed Tinker is right in his comments. We are very much closer than we are apart in our philosophy. I wish that I could show the above mentioned navy to Ed over a few very cold beers. Certain guns should not be touched up or restored. These guns would generally be thought of as the rarer and more expensive Lugers. Maybe even the Nazi Era and contract Lugers where marks mean more than on Imperial Era Lugers. Even the guns that are restored should be done by professionals who realize that THE major part of restoring is in the prep work. An absolute minimal amount of metal should be removed (if any) and no marks should be added or enhanced. THEN you consider the type of bluing to use.
Big Norm
|