Faked, refinished and boosted Lugers.

Jan C Still · 06-10-2002, 03:28 PM

One last caution concerning faked,refinished and boosted Lugers. As Bill Munis pointed out, none of us were at the DWM or Mauser plant when Lugers were being manufactured. The fakers and dishonest dealers ply their trade in secret.

Most often, all the collector has to detect bad Lugers is his past experience, knowledge of markings and serial ranges, common sense and knowledge of the dealer. Some bad Lugers are easy to detect (poor quality refinish, 90 year old gun that looks brand new, inconsistent aging, incorrectly spelled inscription, previous record of the gun without inscription, etc) other bad Lugers are of the highest quality and very difficult to detect (A "K" date expertly made from a Weimar luger). Most often there is no documentation.

As with anything that requires common sense and judgement mistakes are made (ie Johnson the dagger expert may have been mistaken about Herb's SS dagger). In short, the process of detecting bad lugers is fairly certain at the easy end of the scale and not always certain at the difficult end of the scale. However, one pattern is consistent, most often experienced collectors and dealers will not buy the same questionable Luger.
Jan C. Still

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06-10-2002, 03:28 PM	#32
Jan C Still User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Box 240188, Douglas, Alaska, 99824 Posts: 463 Thanks: 0 Thanked 52 Times in 32 Posts	One last caution concerning faked,refinished and boosted Lugers. As Bill Munis pointed out, none of us were at the DWM or Mauser plant when Lugers were being manufactured. The fakers and dishonest dealers ply their trade in secret. Most often, all the collector has to detect bad Lugers is his past experience, knowledge of markings and serial ranges, common sense and knowledge of the dealer. Some bad Lugers are easy to detect (poor quality refinish, 90 year old gun that looks brand new, inconsistent aging, incorrectly spelled inscription, previous record of the gun without inscription, etc) other bad Lugers are of the highest quality and very difficult to detect (A "K" date expertly made from a Weimar luger). Most often there is no documentation. As with anything that requires common sense and judgement mistakes are made (ie Johnson the dagger expert may have been mistaken about Herb's SS dagger). In short, the process of detecting bad lugers is fairly certain at the easy end of the scale and not always certain at the difficult end of the scale. However, one pattern is consistent, most often experienced collectors and dealers will not buy the same questionable Luger. Jan C. Still