I sent out some emails to various Luger parts suppliers with hope of getting them to help us in this project, no actual help yet, but I did get an interesting reply from Tom of Heller Arms. He gave me permission to post his reply.
The last sentence is interesting in that parts suppliers see hundreds if not thousands of parts and at least in Tom’s case seem to believe that there is some correlation to the marks, its location and manufacture.
I have not received much input yet, so I will ask again.
To help we need:
Part name:
Mark: (B through Z) there are no A’s (A’s were rejects)
Mark Size: small or large “if known”
If Frame: Serial Number
If Frame: right or left side
If Frame grip area: top, bottom, or center
If receiver: date if shown
If toggle: name of manufacture (DWM, Erfurt, ect.)
Any other information no the Luger that you feel could be used.
Post info here or send info to
[email protected]
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[email protected] wrote:
Vern, Since almost every large part of a Luger will
have a "worker's" (inspector's) mark on it, this would seem to be a
huge task. The markings inside the frame and receivers are probably
best gleaned from "un-messed with" matching PO8s. In some cases, some
old out of date "symbol" dies (the Portuguese triangle in a circle on
the back of M1910 Mauser frames & the Brazilian B in a circle on 98Ks)
were used to identify inspectors. It is thought that the letters
under the crowns on Imperial era DWM’s & Effort’s, were the first
letter of an inspector's last name (see Costanzo's WOLs Proof mark book for examples by year for each manufacturer). Where there were duplicate initials, a "rocker" was placed under the letter to make the distinction.
I'm afraid that I don't have the time to list all of the inspector's
numbers or letter found on all of my parts, but I can usually tell
which firm a part is from by the marking and it's location. Tom
