Originality ethics (long)

06-18-2001, 02:43 PM

Mark Twain once said something like, "It is better to be silent and have people think you are ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt", but, notwithstanding this admonition, I will go ahead anyway.

I am somewhat confused as to the actual point where a Luger is no longer "original". I am somewhat familiar with what makes a classic car original, but the rules seem a little different with Lugers. Obviously, if the pistol has mismatched numbers, has been chromed, and has a Mauser toggle and a Erfurt frame, we are approaching non-originality.

However, for example, if I have a genuine black widow with a cracked plastic grip and I replace the grip with a genuine grip from another black widow, is the gun still original?

If I replace the black widow grips with genuine wooden Mauser grips from the same era, is the gun still original?

If I find a 1941 byf with aftermarket grips and magazines and do not know what it had come with it originally, is the gun still original if I replace them with genuine grips (either plastic or wooden) and a fxo magazine?

If I replace the Mauser springs with Wolff springs and a Mauser grip screw with the identical screw manufactured by DWM, is the gun still original?

If I replace a side plate stamped "55" on a gun with a serial number of "2755" with the same part stamped "55" from another gun whose serial number is "2855", is the resulting gun original?

I used the black widow above merely as a hyothetical example; I am less concerned with what makes a byf a "black widow" and more concerned about what the rules are about when you can represent a pistol as original and when you cannot. It also seems to me that non-original pistols, unless the alteration is an obvious one, will eventually get cleansed of their non-originality when they get passed through successive owners who do not realize that the guy who owned the gun in 1973 put a non-original but identical-appearing part into it.

In short, are there generally-accepted rules on originality, and is so, what are they?

Thanks.

06-18-2001, 02:43 PM	#1
Mike T. Guest Posts: n/a	Originality ethics (long) Mark Twain once said something like, "It is better to be silent and have people think you are ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt", but, notwithstanding this admonition, I will go ahead anyway. I am somewhat confused as to the actual point where a Luger is no longer "original". I am somewhat familiar with what makes a classic car original, but the rules seem a little different with Lugers. Obviously, if the pistol has mismatched numbers, has been chromed, and has a Mauser toggle and a Erfurt frame, we are approaching non-originality. However, for example, if I have a genuine black widow with a cracked plastic grip and I replace the grip with a genuine grip from another black widow, is the gun still original? If I replace the black widow grips with genuine wooden Mauser grips from the same era, is the gun still original? If I find a 1941 byf with aftermarket grips and magazines and do not know what it had come with it originally, is the gun still original if I replace them with genuine grips (either plastic or wooden) and a fxo magazine? If I replace the Mauser springs with Wolff springs and a Mauser grip screw with the identical screw manufactured by DWM, is the gun still original? If I replace a side plate stamped "55" on a gun with a serial number of "2755" with the same part stamped "55" from another gun whose serial number is "2855", is the resulting gun original? I used the black widow above merely as a hyothetical example; I am less concerned with what makes a byf a "black widow" and more concerned about what the rules are about when you can represent a pistol as original and when you cannot. It also seems to me that non-original pistols, unless the alteration is an obvious one, will eventually get cleansed of their non-originality when they get passed through successive owners who do not realize that the guy who owned the gun in 1973 put a non-original but identical-appearing part into it. In short, are there generally-accepted rules on originality, and is so, what are they? Thanks.