1900 AE - Opinions/Help...

[Ron Wood]

The early Lugers received some of the highest quality finishes of any mass produced item, to the point that the machine marks occasionally were virtually undetectable, much like the example shown. However, Pete pretty much zeroed in on the most significant indicator of refinishing with the statement "Lack of a "polished" area is troublesomeâ?�. On early Lugers, the polished safety area was milled deep enough that there is a discernable edge to the polished area and visible mill marks. Simply re-bluing will leave traces of this milling. On the example shown, the entire area has been fine polished thereby completely removing the safety milling. A restorer or forger will re-cut the polished area. To his/her credit, the individual that expertly refinished this Luger did not. It is a fine looking piece, but it is refinished.

Now, for another topic that has been nagging at me that this Luger brings up. The lack of halo around the serial number. I canâ??t explain it, but I have observed that the early Lugers that have numbers stamped on the curved part of the barrel flange tend to not show a halo. You can see that the metal is â??upsetâ?� around the individual numbers, but the blue usually does not lighten or â??haloâ?�. However on Lugers where the numbers are stamped further out on the barrel on the â??straightâ?� part, the halo shows up. I would appreciate it if other early Luger owners could check to see if they observe the same lack of halo in this area.