Telltale Signs of a Refinished Luger

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by Dwight Gruber

Be careful. Many refinishers have caught on to this one, and are "re-whiting" this pin. Be suspicious of pins which are too bright--almost polished--and dead even with the surface of the toggle piece.

Originally these pins were simply cut off (lathe cut) from stock and pressed into place. They have a characteristic "teat" in the center, remnant of the cutting process. A pin end which is smooth has been removed and tapped back into place by a hammer. The pins were often pressed just below the toggle surface, and can be rimmed by grime. The pin faces do not really rust but they do considerably darken with age, to the extent that it is often extremely difficult to differentiate them from the adjacent blued surface. There is a slight color difference, which sometimes shows up a little better in photos than by eye.

--Dwight

Sometimes a tricky call to make because of the natural darkening. I've noticed the little teat you mention, and its method of creation by lathe cut-off makes perfect sense. Strong magnification can be our best friend!

[Puretexan]

There are a lot of us that are not collectors. We will buy a really nice for sure reblued
luger to have a pretty shooter. They even tell us the royal blued, buffed to death is a
reblue and we will still pay too much for it. I have one that I love. Its buffed to death
but in reality, to me its perfect. I know the grand I paid was cheap, because if I bought
a hacked up perfect specimen, I would spend 6 to 7 hundred to have it reblued anyway.
So this way I save time and trouble getting someone to reblue it, and
I can see the finished product right now. The other way I'm just guessing.

[cirelaw]

Sounds like my first wife! However my third time is a charm!!

[cirelaw]

I had an idea for an invention. There should be a handy marker to detect reblueing like the one used for fake currency. Some sort of litmus test!

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

There should be a handy marker to detect reblueing like the one used for fake currency.

Those only react to the starch in the paper. Real currency isn't really 'paper', it's rag.

What you want for currency is an UV pen that will show the stripe and mini-writing on the stripe. The stripe is in different locations on the bill depending on denomination, and it's a different color too. Green on a twenty.

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Those only react to the starch in the paper. Real currency isn't really 'paper', it's rag.

What you want for currency is an UV pen that will show the stripe and mini-writing on the stripe. The stripe is in different locations on the bill depending on denomination, and it's a different color too. Green on a twenty.

Rich is right, they're basically iodine markers. The swipe that turns black indicates starch. Starch was supposedly used as part of an obsolete counterfeiting process from the 20s, however some starch can be found in today's printer paper.

James Randi used to create a little excitement by sourcing a brand new Ben Franklin from the bank and spraying it with Niagara spray starch before he took it to a merchant with one of the bogus pens. It would show up as bad money in the test at the checkout counter, the police would be called. But the brou-ha-ha would be quelled after the bill was verified at the bank!

[mrerick]

That would have to depend on a chemical reaction to basically the same substances with different ages... That would be an interesting challenge.

One approach would be to somehow test the balance between the different forms of iron oxides. Rust versus magnetite. The more iron oxide deep in the finish, the older the finish.

[cirelaw]

Maybe!

[cirelaw]

George little shooter present! TKS

[cirelaw]

Thank You,

[cirelaw]

I Love This Place!!

[4 Scale]

Here is an invention to detect re-blue. These used to be used a lot in manufacturing, not so much anymore. Therefore they are fairly cheap on Ebay.

My experience is that all Lugers have some degree of finish loss/corrosion, even high-condition Lugers viewed with a microscope. On refinished pistols such areas are blued, on original pistols such areas are not blued.