I am in the process of refinishing an old, pre 1916 commercial Luger. When I bought the gun, it had been stripped of all it's original finish and was either badly worn, or scrubbed/polished. This was okay with me since I bought it as a project gun to refinish, which I enjoy doing.
The trigger was my practice piece for a new straw finish. It was polished with some wet and dry sandpaper and with a Dremel tool using a wire brush, cleaned with denatured alcohol, and placed on a bit of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. I baked the trigger at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I checked it a couple of times and at 15 minutes there was not much change. At 20 there was some change and I took the part out.
The hot part was dipped in a bit of light machine oil (Penn fishing reel oil), lightly wiped off and left to sit. Within the hour it had taken on a nice darker golden yellow color.
