A Reblue Comparison~

[guns3545]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

John your my hero! You more than anyone was simply explained the process. I'm posting my Kriegoff that has unbelievably finish. Did they us a different process?

Eric,

HK used salt bluing, same as Mauser. The difference in finish, primarily is the better surface preparation. Simply put, they did a better job polishing the parts before bluing. Took a little more time and effort.

Same is true for interchangeability standards. They were remarkably better than Mauser as a result of machining to a closer tolerance. Much less hand fitting and fewer rejections than Mauser for head space issues.

But in all fairness HK operated almost like a custom shop compared to Mauser. To put things into perspective, the entire HK first contract of 10,000 guns was produced from late 1935 to beginning of 1938, call it 26-27 months, or 113 working weeks. Mauser typically produced that many P.08s in 3 1/2 working weeks and they consistently did, on average 10-12,000 guns per month from 1934 to 1942. And...many, many improvements to the gun along the way while eliminating unnecessary steps and simplifying production.

John