Holster Wear on Grips?

[mm]

We all know about the effect holsters have on the bluing. But what, if any holster wear, can occur on wood and bakelite grips? In other words, could one expect that a gun that was used very little, with an excellent bore, little-if-any wear on its moving parts, but shows only 85% bluing from holster wear could have excellent wood or bakelite grips? Or would the grips also be effected by constant contact with the leather holster? mm

In my experience, I have not seen grip wear that I would/could attribute to holster wear. I think several factors contributed to the extent and nature of wear on a Luger (or any pistol) from the holster, not the least of which was the amount of time carried in one. Other things to consider is that any pistol/holster used in Europe (and I know most of Russia) spent a great deal of time WET from rain! There is no practical way to avoid this and in my experience it can spend several days at a time in a soaked holster. Also you may have noticed that many Luger holsters have a small amount of paper or cloth stuffed in the tip where the muzzel rest. One purpose this served was to make the Luger ride a little higher in the holster...Perhaps makeing it a bit easier to extract even with the pull up strap, this also maintained the shape of the barrel area of the holster and I would bet caused less rubbing, although I doubt the German soldier/officer realized this or even cared. I think that the nature of service had a great deal of impact on the wear, soldiers marching, horse riding or traveling in armored vehicles were/are subjected to constant pounding and vibration that would cause a pistol to slightly be rubbing against the holster. I think that a Luger with really worn grips was carried in the hand a lot or perhaps fired a lot like a training weapon. The ones that show true period wear like this really talk to you.

[mm]

With a Luger that has bakelite grips, that shows mostly holster wear and very little mechanical wear - would one expect the plastic grips (confirmed original - not replacements)to show almost no wear (unlike the wood ones that would be effected by water and oils? I have a byf 41 z block that has 90% bluing, a very good bore and very good to excellent grips. Under these conditions plastic grips might be the least effected in this environment? mm

I concur with your point if you are saying that everything else being equal, the "plastic" type grips will show less wear that their wooden counterparts. I have seen the bakelite type grips show some dings and wear on nicely finished pistols (say 90%) and I know these were the original grips, this can be attributed to frequent rough handleing, otherwise known as normal life in the military (any country's army). I offer one further observation on holster wear, and that is this: most often PURE holster wear, regardless if its blue wear or some type of grip wear, is fairly localized. This can be in the form of severly spots that served as friction or contact points againist the leather and a lot of movement/time. IMO when pistols show large general areas of worn off or very thin blue and patinia, it is more likely a sign of extensive handeling and cleaning of light rust....another aspect common to all military (war) used pistols.

I've sometimes wondered what effect leather tanning chemicals might have had on the finish of a pistol holstered for a long period. I recall an old article in a hot rod magazine commenting about the smell seats in California cars which had been reupholstered with Mexican leather got if they were rained on. It was believed the leather had been "tanned" in horse urine; which was highly acidic. Could tanning chemicals (regardless of origin) "leach out" of a holster over time; and degrade a pistol's finish?

You are absolutly right. I made an observation earlier regarding the climate in Europe and the fact that in the field the leather could not keep from getting very wet and taking days to dry out...(once the rain stopped). The chemical leaching and moisture from wet holsters plays the devil on a pistols finish. This could be off-sit by wrapping the pistol in some form of wax paper...etc or keeping it smothered in oil...or both. I know that at least sometimes these things were done as per first hand accounts. I personally think that it is important to try and obtain some understanding of the effects that true war usage can have on firearms rather than judge a "vet" as if one were buying a 22cal rifle from Wal-Mart!