This one has really got me going. The more I look at it, the more I am convinced that it is a real Luger.
Not only that, the toggle at least, is a real Krieghoff. I had to look at some pictures to make sure; the real "Krieghoff" toggle stamp covers the full width of the toggle flat. If you look at the picture of the open toggle, you can see that "Krieghoff" goes all the way across, the left part of the K is buffed away completely and the ff has been buffed shallow. If it was a fake engraving I'm sure that it would have been done after buffing, as the maple leaves appear to be.
If the entire pistol is really a Krieghoff it is really too bad.
RK, under the circumstances, in order to make the gun non-firing, they should have ground off the tip of the firing pin--if they were really dedicated they might fill the firing pin hole in the breechblock face as well.
Wes, I agree that making it a shootable piece would be the easiest thing in the world (based on my presumption that it is a real Luger in the first place, certainly a debatable conclusion). Pewter is not an issue.
What is an issue, however, is that the metal itself still may not be in firable condition.
I once explored the possibility of having a Luger engraved, and was told that it is a difficult proposition because some of the metal surfaces of the gun are extremely hard. The engraver I talked to told me that frequently Lugers are heated to soften these surfaces, makes them much easier to work. He then related to me a horror story about an engraver who did this and then never re-hardened the steel before he put the pistol back together! Given the overall engraving of this gun, it seems reasonable to suspect that this could be the case here.
Of course, if this proves -not- to be a real Luger but an obsessively recreated replica...never mind! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]
--Dwight
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