Green coloured Luger

[Nico C]

Hello guys,

I have a question:

a friend of mine got a Luger together with a brown colored holster.
He got it from a former resistance member, who took it from a german officer.
But there is something strange about the P08. It's got a green color (no paint ofcourse ), but the metal has a green shine.

I read some stuff about brown holsters and if I'm right they were carried by feldgendarmerie or police forces. Correct?

But can somebody explain me the "green "color of the Luger?

Thanks,
Nico

[werner]

Hi Nico,

I never seen such color on a weapon

Can you take a pic from this luger ?

[Svet]

If the gun is covered in grease, it may be causing the green shade. Or it may be the bluing itself - I have seen re-blued Lugers that had pretty strange colors.
Or (though this is not likely) it may be some special kind of genuine German bluing.
Bluing color also depends on the steel and the alloys used in it.
The MG34 machine gun, for example, has a reddish-violet tint to its bluing. It's pretty cool.

[stevezz1]

Hi Nico,
Any chance of some photos of the Luger?
I have never heard of this before, i would be very interested to see it.

I believe brown holsters were issued to anybody, regardless of rank or branch of service.

Steve.

[Suber]

It is entirely possible that it may have been "re-blued" post war by a US arsenal perhaps. Many US made weapons, IE: Springfield 1903, .30 Carbine and M1 Garands have the "greenish blueing". I have never seen any German arsenal weapons that have ever had a green blueing process applied. This is just a thought, as I have seen Lugers that have been nickled before

[Nico C]

Thanks for the replies, friends!

I saw several Lugers (have 1 in my collection also), Artillery, Naval,...but this one is really strange. It looks like the green color some colt.45 have. It doesn't look to me that the grease has caused it, because the pistol was kept in the holster all those years without really covering it with grease.

I wish that I could take some pics, but since the weapon isn't registrated or de-activated, it is put very good away. It will be difficult to bring the owner over to let me take some pics.
That's a pity.

Nico

[Alan Smith]

I seem to recall hearing that some of the P.08 sold by Mauser to Portugal c. 1942/1943 had a "Parkerized" type grey-green finish, similar to what you would observe on a U.S. issue M1911A1 pistol.

I saw one of these Portugese P.08's for sale as part of the estate of a gun colllector back around 1988-1989. Who knows - maybe the Parkerized finish was done in Portugual, subsequent to delivery by Mauser?

Also, you might check Jan Still's book "Third Reich Lugers" - I bet it has some material re: this particular sale to Portugal.

[Johnnie]

Parkerizing(actually a phosphate) came in many shades with U.S. military weapons, depending on the percentage of phosphate in the solution, and how long the item was left in. It can range from a greenish color through various shades of gray to almost black. Many U.S. WW2 weapons exhibit the greenish tone, and I have seen late war 98K bolts made by Steyr that were a greenish tone. Maybe this Luger was factory refinished by Parkerizing. If a Parkerized weapons id oiled and cleaned a lot, the finish will sort of "settle down" and not look rough as when first finished. When I worked at a government repair shop refinishing M-16's, I would have the refinish guy leave the small parts in longer untill they were almost black, then put them on refinished recievers and barrels that were gray. Cool two tone effect. Untill I got my butt chewed out for it!
BTW. The Parkerizing solution looks like hot green cool-aid in the bin.
Cheers,
Johnnie

[stevezz1]

According to Jan Still's 'Third Reich Lugers' about 4500 byf 42 Lugers went to Portugal in late '42 and 5600 to Bulgaria. No mention of parkerizing though.

'Lugers at Random' by Charles Kenyon also highlights these Lugers which did not carry the P.08 stamp on the frame but had German military markings on the extractor and "in the safety lever area". Also the small parts, trigger, mag release, safety lever and take down lever are straw blued while the rest of the gun is salt blued.
The reported examples have a four digit serial number with 'w' suffix.

Again, no mention of parkerizing.

Steve.

[gew98]

My bet it is post war french reissue/refinished. By the gun and not the story. Being Po8 pistol production was phased out in late 1942 and the majority of spare parts were used up to make complete pistols for the Luftwaffe it is super unlikely a phosphate finish PO8 as done by german depots exhists.