[Wastoute]

What I am fascinated by is just how Lugers were made. Is there a reference that discusses the manufacturing? Having been a production machinist in the '70s I have some knowledge of metal working and as I consider the years these things were made I wonder. For instance, when were electric furnaces introduced? Which parts were cast? How? Cast from tapping a furnace where the steel was made or a furnace where steel was melted? Man, I can think of so many questions and I suspect, as usual, answers just lead to more questions.

The price of the steel for parts may not have been cheap but the value of those parts has to increase as time is spent working on them, so can you imagine a production line where parts are handed along to masters of their craft with increasing skill and as the years go by and skill increases the opportunities to master even more demanding skills...photos of these shops must have been made and might reveal details of "how it was done" that would be a lot of fun to discover.

I visited a furnace in PA once many years ago and the "guide" gave a talk on "How it was done" 200 years ago. The iron was made (obviously) in the furnace. When the guy in charge decided the time was right the furnace was tapped and the river of molten iron was channeled into runs like irrigation ditches to flow into wax formed parts that were buried in the sand. To describe it with words fails to convey the awe at the skill of the craftsmen who could do this that, for me, can only be really appreciated by seeing the site. Realize, you only get one shot at that moment which is the culmination of weeks of work. Were parts for Lugers cast in a similar fashion?