Revisit Baby Lugers

I expect this thread is worn thin, however I want to shed a bit of light on the subject. I have personally handled 2 of the known GL babies. I saw the Bulgarian shown in Kenyon long before he knew it existed. The second was some months ago in Bob Simpson's shop. Both of course have the GL on rear toggle. In effect the grip frame was shortened by one cartridge. A section is removed from the grip equal to one cartridge and frame is silver soldered back together. The original barrel was shortened by length of the sight band with the band sleeved back on to the barrel. Solder joints are visable on grip and barrel behind sight band. Grips were originals with center section removed and joined by a dovetail type joint that is invisable from the outside. The magazines appear to be manufactured short or at least not shortened from the bottom. My babies are made about same. It is possible to remove section of frame and it will fit back together without any recontour of the metal. I used silver solder on first one or two. After many rounds fired one developed a crack in solder. Since then I weld front and back straps[The old fashioned way-- acetylene torch] I rework original or repro grips differently which requires a short splice in bottom of checkering line. I shorten clips [sorry it may not be politicaly correct--but 40 years ago they were clips] on bottom. A standard mag works fine---it just protroudes from the bottom of frame. These babies don't just fall together of course and considerable time is envolved. The worst difficulty I sometimes encounter is that guys want to use a Luger that also requires hours of restoration. I have made a couple of the little short barrels like Martz babies because owners want them that way. The real McCoys were just short by distance of sight band. I will forward to John some photos and a scan of one currently under construction that he may post for me if he wants.