Worth repairing?

Hi guys,


is this one worth saving? What about the value?


Just kiddin, found the picture on a Russian site, I think it was found somewhere near St. Petersburg. It sure must have a history...


Mikael




http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/parabellum.jpg

[Craig]

Worth saving? Well that aluminum mag bottom still looks good.


I wonder how a pistol in that condition would best be preserved as a dug battlefield relic. Sandblasting doesn't seem appropriate.


I'd buy it and start a relic collection which would include a navy luger off the Bismark. Bet there are some nice ones down there.


Craig

[BILL]

Best preserved? Well, at some point preservation ceases to be an issue. I think in this case is was many years ago. I have seen some WWII pistols from Japan that were in the ocean for many years. I think once they are dried out the oxidation and corrosion stops any further deterioration.

I saw a deal a few years back about a German barge type boat that supposedly was transporting Russian Gold from somehere in the east to Germany when the last Russian offensive hit. The treasure hunters found it, no gold, but did pull a luger, ss ring, and other odds & ends from the wreck. The gun looked very good and it had been in the Atlantic for 50+ years. You can't tell me somebody isn't going to get hurt digging up this Russian stuff. I have a healthy respect for unexploded ordnance regardless of age and desire.


Roadkill

[Dwight Gruber]

I may get into trouble on some of the details here, but...


You do need to actually halt the corrosion. Rust "blooms", that is, grows from the metal. Removing the gun from the corrosive environment will slow it way down, but in order to stop it you need to either remove it from the surface or chemically change the rust coating itself so that it no longer attacks the metal.


You can have quite a thick layer of rust and still have substantial metal underneath it. Iirc, you need to determine if there is sufficient metal to remove the rust, of if the artifact is mostly rust and the rust itself needs to be affixed in place so that it grows no further, but doesn't flake away (the drum magazine down-screen comes to mind!). Of course, if you remove the rust, you need to take measures to preserve the metal--I'll take refuge here in the well-worn "these methods are commonly known."


I have seen a Colt model 1911, dug up out of a farmer's field in England, dating from when said farm was a WWII B-24 bomber base. The weapon had been properly conserved, was -badly- pitted but rust-free and surface-treated in some fashion--the slide and action still worked! The farmer was a young boy there during the war, he knew the story (a rather funny one) that went with the gun long beforer he actually found it.


--Dwight

There is an electrolytic recovery process that is applied to old iron cannonballs and other artifacts removed from the ground or sea. The idea is to electrically reduce (promote oxygen removal from FeO combinations?) the iron atoms. The result often looks great if the oxide is not too deep and has not "layered" in such leaves that it is hard to restore the physical structure of the item. 16th century iron anchors removed from the sea near Florida have sat as roadside attractions and crumbled in a few short years after having rested on the seabed in decent encapsulated condition for centuries. A luger exposed to air will also quickly crumble away.


Once treated this way, an iron object can be protected with a chemical to provide an oxygen barrier (like we use grease) or placed in an oxygen free environment -- also control humidity/temp.


That is how special iron objects can be treated in museums.

[schwob]

I think if we coupled this Luger to the snail drum offered on Gun Broker, it would make a controversal combination.

[Hugh]

[Thor]

sure....I got one just like that from HUGH! He knows how to pick them! Thor