1st time poster and Luger owner

[Levi 42]

Gentleman,
I'm retired and after a lifetime of wanting a Luger, I finally got one last week.
It is a Mauser 42 made in 1939 with all matching numbers except the mag. It is in poor condition with very dirty wooden grips, metal finish about 60% and worn off in some places, has some pitting on the outside of the barrel etc. Mechanically it seems sound, bore looks decent.
It may be a while before I figure out your picture posting technique but my question to you guys is, should I just leave it alone or have it refinished.
I passed on a decent looking "shooter" to buy this one, but I like to shoot what I own.
I'm a M1 Garand collector/accumulator and participate in some CMP shooting...............Lugers are very interesting

[JimD]

Welcome to the addiction. Unless its clear the finish is not original leave it alone. 60% finish is still more valuable than a refinish. Look over at the column on the left. Click on general information, scroll to the bottom and there is a tutorial on grip cleaning.

Believe me, one will not be enough.

[Edward Tinker]

Levi, welcome to the forum, any luger is a good start to a collection (whether it be 1 or 5 )


Ed

[Ice]

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your new Luger. Refinishing is not a good idea on an original piece.

Charlie

[Levi 42]

I took it to the range today... I'm very impressed with it's performance....at 27' and 50' it shot good groups. It is also the most comfortable center fire pistol I've ever fired.....I don't think I will be satisfied with just one.............Thanks for all the kind comments.....

[Ron Smith]

Levi,

I have used a very simple method of cleaning Luger grips. It works very well.

I use an old toothbrush , "Dawn" dishwashing detergent and warm water. Scrub them very gently, using soft strokes following the checkering grooves, until the lather turns brown. Rinse off the lather and repeat the process. Have some paper towels handy. After rinsing, just press them gently between the towels to remove as much water as possible. And let them air dry naturally.

Use Tung oil or "Watco" untinted Danish furniture oil, applied with cotton balls or soft cotton patch. Just dab it on and let it dry. About 3 applications is about right. Use a clean dry toothbrush to gently remove any fuzz left by the cottonballs. This method retains the natural aging of the grips, yet cleans and refurbishes them.

The key here is "GENTLY". Hold them gently, scrub them gently, and oil them gently.

This wood is old, thin, and saturated with years of oil and grime which will tend to make them brittle.

DON'T use linseed oil. It will soften and darken the wood.

Good Luck! Ron

[PhilOhio]

I have to agree and disagree with a couple things in Ron's excellent post. Toothbrush cleaning is the way to go, with water as hot as your hands can comfortably take it. Liquid dish detergent is not nearly as effective as picking up your soap onto the bristles from a bar of hand soap, which is reasonably mild for the wood (and hands), yet more effective than most dish detergents. But lots of things work. I used to worry about warping the wood, but it has never happened in the last 40 years, so I guess it won't happen now.

Tung oil and Watco are excellent, IF you want to add a slight gloss finish. I don't want to do that on checkered wood. If you only use about one light coat, it may not be noticeable, but it will seal the wood.

For rifle stocks or pistol grips where you want to build up a gloss or a flat finish, nothing I have found beats the Formby's finish, which is mostly tung oil. You buy it in either gloss or flat, and you can control the degree of both, in the way you wipe it on (thick or thin) and prep with fine steel wool between coats. You could use a soft lint-free cotton pad to daub one coat of the flat version of this on Luger grips, and probably get away with it, without adding gloss, but this is not my first choice.

As Ron says, be careful with the thin grips. With those, another thing that may happen is that the bristle brush cleaning may reveal hairline cracks, which complicates things. I let the grip dry for about a day before slightly spreading the crack from behind with a thin screwdriver blade or putty knife. Then I work a tiny bit of Devcon 5-minute Epoxy into the open crack, close it and hold until set, and quickly remove any that oozes out, using a fine tool such as an X-acto blade. This repair will last forever, including on the stock of a rifle generating a lot of recoil, IF you got the oil out before putting the epoxy in.

I have to disagree about the linseed oil. And I'm talking about using only boiled linseed oil on any gun stock. I do use it on pistol grips, including Lugers, but only after the soap and toothbrush cleaning routine. It does not "soften" any kind of gunstock wood I know about, and I've been using it for many decades...as did all the military services, including the Germans.

But on checkered pistol grips? Minimize it, or it will attract and build up dirt and grime if overdone. After scrubbing and drying, your Luger grips will look terrible...bleached out and too clean. Yes, the linseed oil does darken them, as it is supposed to; as will all the other finishes mentioned. It will make them the same color as when new, approximately. Which is what we want. But if you keep doing it over and over for years, it will get darker, which is what you washed off with the toothbrush. And that's all that has to be done if you decide you have made it darker than you want.

I used to worry and worry that anything I might do to gun wood might "hurt" it. Not likely, unless you become really aggressive and remove wood, as by sanding, etc.

The main thing with checkered grips is to try not to make the checkering less sharp. Washing with a brush is no problem there.

Few simple things you can do to Luger grips will make as much difference to the gun's overall appearance as brushing, washing, and then replacing the original color...with one thin application of boiled linseed oil...or possibly the other things mentioned, if careful. And there may be other preservatives which work, without adding gloss. But boiled linseed oil application is the oldest and most common method.

Oh yes, just about any mistake you make when applying the coating finishes which build up a shell, such as tung oil or Watco, are easily reversed by using common gel-type paint stripper and the soap and water treatment. Strip it, clean it, dry it, and start over. Nothing is lost or permanently damaged...unless you do this endlessly and wear down the wood and your fingers.

[Ron Smith]

"I have to disagree about the linseed oil. And I'm talking about using only boiled linseed oil on any gun stock. I do use it on pistol grips, including Lugers, but only after the soap and toothbrush cleaning routine. It does not "soften" any kind of gunstock wood I know about, and I've been using it for many decades...as did all the military services, including the Germans."

Phil,

I have had a totally different experience. I have restored quite a number of military stocks in the last 40 years. I have done several M1 Garand and Carbine stocks, as well as Mausers.

I had an M1 Garand stock that was so saturated, you could literally dig chunks out of with your finger nails. From what I have seen, Linseed oil will penetrate over a period of time, saturating the wood fibers causing them to separate.

It can be likened to enter lacing and locking your fingers, and then pulling them apart. If your fingers are dry there is substantial resistance. If you put oil on them first, there is very little resistance. It does the same to wood fiber.

I'm not saying this will happen with fresh wood and a few coats of Linseed oil, it won't. However, 60-90 year old wood that has absorbed body oil, gun oil and unknown coatings of Linseed, it will.

I have used light coats of Watco on all of my Luger grips. With 2 to 3 light coatings, it doesn't leave a shine or a gloss.

Dawn detergent is probably the most mild soap available. It cuts through oil, and does not harm the wood. It's used to clean aquatic birds and animals that have been coated from oil spills.

Here are 3 photos. All were done as I have described.

Best regards...

Ron

[PhilOhio]

Ron, I understand what you are saying about linseed oil, especially in a military context. Your experience is no different than mine, regarding the surplus military guns we have seen and tried to rehab. I've probably done 50 or more. Soldiers slop it on, not knowing what to do and what not to do. Over 20 - 30 years, it builds up into a gloppy mess of combined grime, mud, lubricating oil, unburned powder, and body oils. That's what we scrub off, or try to.

As for softening and ruining the wood on these rifles, it is not the linseed oil that is doing it. It is the rifle lubricating oil and solvent. Next time you check, you will see it is worst where metal meets wood, especially toward the rear of the action. Sometimes the only answer is a different stock set.

When rifles sit for long periods in racks, butt down, all this mess percolates downward into the wood. But don't blame the linseed oil.

And unboiled linseed oil is the wrong stuff. Which is why the experts in preserving gun wood pointedly recommend against using the raw, unboiled kind. Sometimes when you are buying it, is is hard to determine what you are looking at, from the label.

If you clean the wood thoroughly and then start out using the right linseed oil, judiciously, all these bad things will not happen. I've been doing it for a long time, so I know what works and what does not. I like to put an oil finish on military longarms which are supposed to have it. And none of mine come out looking like 90-year-old reject Enfields.

On the dried scrubbed wood, use a CLEAN soft cloth to wipe on a wet coat of boiled linseed oil. Let it stand for 15 - 30 minutes. If any remains, wipe it off with a CLEAN dry cloth. After 3 - 7 days, wipe on another light coat and then wipe it off. That should do it, unless the wood starts looking dried out. ...which might be years in the future.

But if oiled gun wood starts looking dirty, one cleans it. Like most of us do to ourselves. Well, maybe except for Michael Moore.

But having extolled the virtues of boiled linseed oil, I say "amen" to your recommendation of the Watco finish. It's wonderful stuff, and you don't have to wonder about how the job will come out.

[suum cuique]

Phil.
what do you mean with "cooked linseed" oil? Can I buy already cooked linseed oil or do I have to heat it up til it boils ?
What about light colored "English lemon oil"? I used this on funiture. Should I use this for grips, too?
Thanks,
Andy

[rolandtg]

"Cooked" linseed oil means boiled.
You can buy boiled linseed oil at Home Depot etc.
I have used it on grips, stocks, and even furniture to good effect.

[FNorm]

Thanks, guys , for the great discussion. I did my first set of grips a few weeks ago and was worried about everything. I used 'Murphy's Oil Soap' to soak and clean. A small fingernail brush to lightly scrub, and then a day later the Formby's tung oil finish. Everything came out well. Not so clean and light to look strange on a 1914 Luger, But they look like wood now.

Amazing the glop that came off.


FN