WTK: What the He!! is Strawing?

I know nothing about Lugers other than I think I NEED one. Help a newbie and tell me what is strawing and why does everyone emphasize it so much.


PS I am looking for a nice non-import shooter. Also can anyone recommend a good beginner book to get the basics.


crl

[Frank]

I am not the expert on Strawing, but the "small" parts of Some Lugers are gold colored from a heat treatment (not plated or painted) These are the trigger, take down lever, magazine release button, safety lever and ejector. Most Luger before mid 1937 had strawed parts and most after did not. The same dates can be used for rust blueing and dip blueing. Rust blueing goes with the strawed parts. The reason the Germans discontinued the rust/straw practice was that it was labor intensive, thus took more time.


Several pretty good books on Lugers in general are Lugers at Random, by Kenyon and The Luger Book by Walter. If you are interested in a specific era of Lugers, Jan C. Still has a series covering three periods that are pretty good. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the explanation of what strawing is. Why is it called strawing? Anyway thanks again. I will look into getting a decent book that describes the variety of guns and go from there. I am not a collector of priceless guns. I like to have a good representation of firearms that I can shoot occaisionally.


crl

Strawing is probably a reference to the color being similar to straw yellow. The Russian imports with the coarse plastic grips, Mauser made P08s, appear to be among the best shooters. Many were near new when prepped to export to the US in the 1990s. Non-import shooters can be of many flavors from mismatched to well-worn but they appear sporadically. There are some retailers appearing in the links section who should be able to locate one for you.


Be sure to replace original grips and firing pin before shooting these as these parts don't hold up well when shot and will greatly reduce the value of the luger if damaged.


Good luck and enjoy your irreversible adventure into lugerdom.


dave

[Rick K]

Welcome to the forum! Click on the Links & Resources button on this site and then click on Ted Green's site. He is the resident expert on strawing!

[Wolfgang Pfeifer]

Hello crl,


Strawing is a process. It uses shades of yellow to indicate the Hardness/Temper ratio of steel parts. After carbon steel parts are hardened they are brittle as a result of sudden cooling in oil or water baths. In short, tempering (re-heating, 300-750 F range) relieves the stresses of the polished parts and makes them serviceable for their designed use and less likely to break. As the polished parts are heated, they change color. This applies to specific parts of Lugers.


Colors go from:

â??Very pale yellow 430 Fâ?� to

â??Light yellow 440 Fâ?� to

â??Pale straw-yellow 450Fâ?� to

â??Straw-yellow 460 Fâ?� to

â??Deep straw-yellow 470 Fâ?� and all the way through brown, purple blue at 640 F.


I share with you what I have learned.


Regards, Wolfgang

Hey I thought I was DL !

The most commonly used reference book to identify luger variations by most collectors is Kenyon's "Lugers at Random" which I sell new postpaid @$60. In addition, once you have identified the variation, it is handy to have "The Blue book of gun Values" which will give you a ball park value, based on condition, of an all matching example of each variation. There are certainly more current more detailed references available, to wit, Jan Still's 5 volume set of Axis Pistols. The 3 volumes specifically on lugers published thus far retail for $65 each.

If you're looking for a quick down and dirty reference "The Luger Handbook" by Aarron Davis for $10 is hard to beat. It an 8"x5" book, so easily goes to gun shows. Gives a brief history of the Luger, short description of each major production run up to the immediate post WWII period. Includes proof markings examples and prices as of 1997. Can be ordered from any of the book store internet sites. Happy Hunting.

[Dok]

You would get the exclusive use of DL (or dl) by filling out a profile and associating a password with it.


Dok [WEBMASTER]

[Dok]

The Luger Handbook by Aaron Davis $9.95. Great for use at Gun Shows, leads you by process of elimination to the right model and gives sample prices.


Dok