1920's Era Reworks - Original Or Not..?

[Pete Ebbink]

As I understand, the 1920-23 time period had lots of lugers that were reworks, rebarreles, and/or refinishes of previous Imperial era lugers.

For such a Weimar era reworked luger, would it be appropriate to consider the gun's finish as "original" ? (Assume for this example that this was the luger's only trip to the refinish shop).

Could such a luger be sold as "original"...or should it be called or advertised as "an arsenal refinish" ?

I am very confused on this point...and would appreciate your thoughts and advice !

[Marvin]

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I am going to take a stab at this question as it is definetly confusing and I guess there may be several different interpretations of the Weimar reworks.

I consider the Weimar reworks to be "original" because they were reworked by a German Government entity; be it DWM, BKIW, Mauser, Simson, Police Arsenals, etc. During this time there was so much going on to hide the fact the Military/Police, and other paramilitary units were rearming that the use of former WWI Lugers were needed. One way was to bring these tired pistols back up to first class condition. These were authorized reworks, but not an "original" factory pistol. I put these in a catagory that are definetly collectible from the Weimar Era.

Lets take for example a reworked Weimar Police Luger and a Third Reich Police Luger that may have served side by side in the war, both are in the same general condition, and are for sale at a gunshop. The Weimar may cost a few hundred dollars less than the Third Reich Luger because the quantity available on the market is greater with the Weimar Rework Luger vs the new Third reich Lugers. I feel that if that was factored in, the two would be equal in value, therefore both are collectible and should be considered original.

Since the German Police had been issued Lugers from the 1920s, they may have had sufficient pistols to last thru the war, with the Third Reich dated Police Lugers being purchased on an as needed basis to account for loss and new Policemen. We know that the Banner Police Lugers cost more than the Weimar Lugers and this is my reasoning for that difference.

Finally, I feel they are distince variations, just as the post war East German reworks are a distinct variation and collectible in their own right. This Forum is broken down into "variations" and each variation has it's own distinct collector groups. So again, they may not be "factory" original, but they are original in the collctible world. I hope this has not been too confusing, so I hope others will express thier opinions. <img src="graemlins/icon501.gif" border="0" alt="[icon501]" />

Marvin

[Edward Tinker]

No Marvin, that is essentially how I feel about this also.

(and ed is NOT an expert, [img]wink.gif[/img] )

I believe if it was done by a Gov't arsenal or sponsored by a gov't arsenal, then it is "real".

That is why I feel the imports and the East German / Russian reworks will be worth more in the coming years.

I wish I'd bought one (or 10) when they came over, but I was overseas.
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