Wood-bottomed mags

[G.T.]

Hi PP & Johnny! I think Johnny has it pretty well covered... almost all Luger mag. bottoms of German manufacture were made from European Walnut... but the part that is interesting, is that as Johnny stated, the wood was most likely high, cold climite, dense growth wood,... once cut, it is gone forever... this is drastically different then the warm climite tree farm wood that is supplied today... another feature of the original old European walnut, is the wide range of colors that are found, especially in Mauser K98 stocks... I have been told that the Luger grips and mag bottoms are from the cutoffs of rifle stock production, but I believe they probably procured their own wood stock for the Luger, as handling cut off and checked small pieces for mass production dosen't make any sense.. One big-a** walnut tree would make a big bunch of Luger mag bottoms!! There are quite a few original beech bottoms on Lugers also.. and these display the light colored, cross streaked, striations that are almost always mistaken for grain.. and, they are always a washed out brown color, sometimes with a reddish purple hue to them...I think mainly mid to late WWI & post WWI use... almost all of the Germany marked bottoms are of European Beech... As for other woods... I have seen some real tacky grips and bottoms, that are a real tacky orange/yellow color, and they are of a real soft fuzzy wood... my best guess is alder, as unlikely as that seems! Thats about it! Till...later...G.T. <img src="graemlins/jumper.gif" border="0" alt="[jumper]" />