As for the plated Krieg, it looks relatively or maybe even totally unbuffed. If it was plated soon after the war, and only chemically stripped first, or plated simply over the original finish, ( which could explain the extremely poor condition of the plating now ), the guns metal underneath may be nearly untouched and new.
The best looking Luger I ever saw came into my possession with flaking chrome plating, which I had ELECTRO-stripped by a company which does plating of stuff like home hardware etc. The gun looked crisp and square under the plating, so I took the chance and bought it, on the cheap of course.
The plater only charged $50 . ( I disassembled most of the parts of the gun, except the toggle train, and bagged them according to size. Springs and pins in one bag, medium size parts in another, larger parts, and then in the fourth bag, the frame, and cannon. Carefully listed the parts and the bags they were in, with count, to make the plater's job easier for him to keep track of. They wire the parts together in strings, and hang them in the dip while the chrome is sucked off electrically.
I gave them strict instructions to not touch the metal with any abrasives, no carding, no sanding, buffing. They electro-dipped and stripped the parts I gave them, and when I got them back they looked like new millings. The still wet-from-rinsing parts had a slightly frosted evenly dull finish that looked a bit like light bead-blasting, but very flat, square, proper curves, and NO scratches, no wear, no scuffs; amazing. The metal was totally protected by the plating for the last sixty years, and was in pristine shape. Just needed skillful blueing to be a new gun.
In fact, the freshly exposed new metal really looked so much better that I considered just keeping it and leaving it in the white. I wish I had taken photos of it when assembled, but I sold it almost immediately for several hundred dollars more than I paid. ( I only keep Imperial Lugers. ) The Luger collector buyer took it at the first price I asked, which was of course not as much as I should have asked.
Anyway, depending on the condition the gun was in before plating, and the plating pre-process used, there is real value inside alot of these ugly plated Lugers.
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