Nickled luger?

[Joe]

Deaf

When I was a young lad my father would be talking with men in his age group, usually in a bar and they all had take home "articles" from both theaters of WW II. Sometimes one of these former GIs's would show my father a handgun or bayonet that he just had a friend chrome at one of the many factories in southern CT. I recall everyone saying how nice the finish made the weapon look. To me in those days, these weapons looked great. Either chrome or nickle plating was the "style in the early '50s, just look at the bumpers on those cars from that eaa.

I was recently shown a P-38, marked 480, that was all matching, including the magazine. It had been chromed years ago and many of the proof marks, etc were partically filled in by this material. The owner believed this weapon was much more valuable because it was chromed. I couldn't bring myself to tell this old guy the truth about the damage to this gun's value.