What is "Straw"

N

Normmus

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in the context of describing a Luger pistol? When reading the descriptions of certain pistols for sale, the "straw" is mentioned. It seems to be mostly on the descriptions of older Lugers, ie WW1. I have never seen this term used to describe any other kind of firearm, only Lugers. So, what is it, exactly? Some part of the finish?:confused:
 
Strawing

This is a Heat treatment applied to small bare metal parts on pre 1937 Lugers,the Safety lever,trigger etc....this treatment results in a Golden Yellow colour that is corrosion/wear resistant and looks quite nice when contrasted with the bluing... Straw is so named because of the Colour....see some Lugers on this site for examples...
www.lugercollector.com
 
lugercollector said:
This is a Heat treatment applied to small bare metal parts on pre 1937 Lugers,the Safety lever,trigger etc....this treatment results in a Golden Yellow colour that is corrosion/wear resistant and looks quite nice when contrasted with the bluing... Straw is so named because of the Colour....see some Lugers on this site for examples...
www.lugercollector.com
Click to expand...

Nice shameless plug!:D

I should hire you for my marketing group!
 
You can create this colour quite easily to see just what it is...

take a small flat piece of steel (NOT stainless) and polish it to a fine finish, finishing with 400 grit wet/dry paper or 600 grit. Hold on to a small portion of this with pliers or something that will hold it as you heat this part..

heat it slowly with a propane torch... as it heats up the first colour it will change to is a very light straw, then a darker straw. If you heat it too quickly or with too much heat, it goes through these stages very quickly to other colours... a very nice blue colour is toward the end of colours achieved this way.
 
You find it on the rear sights of some older Mausers also. Very pretty.

Every type of steel demands its own particular heat-treatment for a given purpose. The steels used for these parts just wanted a straw finish in that application, that's all.

Strawed Luger triggers and takedown levers are REAL pretty! Class.
 
skirsons said:
The SVT-40 is another gun that is often mentioned to have the "straw" colored treatment (on the bolt carrier).
Click to expand...

The non refurbed one's I've seen (many over the years) were all polished steel. You're not confusing strawing with the "plum" colour seen on refurbs due to blueing the high nickel content steel used in the bolt carrier?
 
just an aside...

how about 'electric blue'...?

is it blued or some sort of heat process?

My C96 has a few parts in that finish....would be neat to have a whole gun done in electric bloo
 
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