[Thor]

I am now seeing a few salt blued WWI Erfurts and DWMS that the were probably sold to the owners as mint condition guns. These typically have a little higher finishing polish prior to bluing. Sometimes well done, sometimes not. When buying what you think is an original rust blued Luger ALWAYS look at the muzzle and inside the reciever rails for white or tarnished white steel and always look for worn strawed parts. Look for wear on the top of the sideplate and sides of the muzzle and end of the frame rails. If this gun was used in a war, it was put in a holster and should look like it! Many of the internal parts should also be white. And also look for a WWI vintage firing pin (no vents) Most strawed parts that are old will have some of the original strawing on the part of the part that is inside the gun. Rust bluing is a different color than salt bluing. Before you buy an Erfurt or DWM that is original you need to go see a few at gun shows or dealers and when you start seeing orginal ones you will see the color difference. If is sometimes hard to explain, but the original rust bluing was greyer and bluer than salt blues. If you buy a gun that has over 95% strawing it PROBABLY was "touched" up. Strawing is just not that durable a finish.....especially on a 80 yr old gun. <img src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" border="0" alt="[soapbox]" />