Refinishing

The old rule that a refinish is equivalent to a 0% finish is a good one. At 30-40% finish, it will have some stronger value than a prettied-up luger. Maybe not noticable in 2002 but in twenty years it might be a meaningful difference. Refinished, though, you can be certain it will have no growth in value beyond that of other 0% lugers. Another way to decide is to ask how much information about the original luger is removed when you alter it. In the case of the 1936 you describe, it loses the information about its original finish and surface condition. If, at some future date, documents surface that provide more information about the history of your specific gun, you may have removed evidence of, eg., its use by a specific person in a specific battle. Perhaps the pits and wear are linked to a specific event or use of the pistol.


That is what you lose if you refinish--you are destroying historic information however small.


By the way, pits are not easy to remove and I find they look worse when blued-over.


Just my opinion but gun values over the decades support it.