Rod,
The item description lists the magazine bottom as "ivoroid". As far as I have been able to determine, ivoroid, or ivorine, is a white celluloid material, sometimes cast, and finished to look like elephant ivory. It seems to have heavy use in stringed musical instruments, being used for tunig pegs, picks, and inlay and end-cap decoration. It has also been used for buttons and small picture frames, and other tchotchkis.
To convert 9mm to 8mm one would have to replace (or reline) the barrel. That is not the issue with the gun under discussion. It is a model 1900, with a .30 cal (7.65mm) pencil barrel. These get -really- thin toward the muzzle. Reboring to 8mm and rifling would very likely breach the outer surface at some point, or at the very least make the metal near the muzzle to be so thin as to be unsound.
--Dwight
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