1939-42 Luger at Hermann

[A.Mifsin]

Hi all, there is a 1939-42 Luger at Hermann Historica Acution Lot No 900, which looks like it is in mint condition, but there is star stamp on the left side of the barrel to the right of the proof mark, any idea what is the meaning of this stamp? I included a photo but it is not so clear, sorry.
Alf.

[Norme]

Hi Alf, The asterisk mark has been discussed several times on Jan Stills' forum, with no real consensus reached. Here's a link. Regards, Norm

http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...light=asterisk

[A.Mifsin]

Thank You Mate.
Alf.

[MJRiggs]

Alf,

As stated in the thread from the other forum, the "reject mark" is very common on P-38s – particularly the later “cyq” marked pistols made by Spreewerk. This is the first time that I have seen a photo of the mark on a Luger - but I am no expert on either pistol.

My understanding is that the stamp shows that the part failed the first inspection, but was accepted for use after the flaw was corrected. I do not know if the star burst stamp was applied to show the initial reject, or to show the final acceptance after the part was reworked.

For an example here is a photo of the mark on the frame of my P-38. For more discussions on the topic go to the P-38 Forum at http://forums.p38forum.com/ and do a forum search on the term “reject mark”.

Mike

[A.Mifsin]

Hi Mike, thank you for your feedback, interesting point is
"I do not know if the star burst stamp was applied to show the initial reject, or to show the final acceptance after the part was reworked. "
Alf.

[Nomadr]

I would only point back to the P.38. You will sometimes see more than one "asterisk". So one would assume it would be a reject mark rather than a acceptance mark . Maybe there was a limit to how many reject marks were accepted before the part was scrapped.

Spreewerk may have been a little more liberal than Mauser.

Bob

[MJRiggs]

All,

I pulled out my copy of The P.38 Pistol Spreewerk Production by Jan Balcar & Ron Ciarin (an excellent book by the way) and it has several paragraphs describing the “asterisk” stamp and how it was used to mark parts as a “repairable reject”. The asterisk indicated the rejection, and the acceptance mark was only applied once the defect was successfully corrected. The authors also stated that after three asterisks the part was classified as un-repairable and not used.

Take a close look at the photo that I posted of my Spreewerk pistol above and you can see two different asterisk stamps, one on the frame and one on the exposed portion of the barrel. The barrel asterisk near the top left of the photo is not a clean strike and only the very center of the asterisk and only a few of the radiating lines are visible. Also note the e/88 Waffenamt acceptance stamps right next to both asterisks to show what ever error caused the inspector to initially reject the frame and slide had been corrected.

Mike

[A.Mifsin]

Thank You all .
Alf.