A dark park job might look nice. Pitting will be really noticeable if you blue it. Maybe talk to someone who refinishes as a specialty to give you more information.
Many were built on Charles Erb registered receiver tubes using Germany WWII parts:
https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52939-37-402/
Many of the 100 percent original MP40s were amnesty guns.
This PPK may be close to 1st year production. One serial number charts start at 7700xx which indicates 1931. Another site says that production started in 1930 with 754900. So it's about a 94 to 95 year old pistlo. It is a .32cal which was standard at the time. Maybe one of our members can...
Because it was made by Walter in West Germany it should be a good one. Walther made these for German police depts for years in .32 cal. Hey, James Bond liked them!
Cliff, please accept my condolences. As much as I would like to say something that would make you feel better I don't know of any words that will really help assuage the pain and grief that accompany such a loss. Both of you are in my prayers.
Guys, lighting can strike you anywhere! I think that the secret to staying safe is knowing your own limitations. But as mamma used to say, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".
@NMEDGE welcome back to the fellowship of the forum. We missed you. As for retirement, I always planned to die in the harness pulling the plow, but life got in the way of that notion and now I'm just running out the clock but doing it my way!
Those are some butt ugly grips. For comparison here is a Model 63 which is built on a J frame while the 617 is a K frame. I just might have to get a K frame to see which one I like the best!
Here's the rest of the story:
https://wach.com/news/local/break-in-turns-deadly-how-it-unfolded-alexander-dickey-logan-federico-columbia-police-department-south-carolina-cypress-street-waxhaw-resident-burglary-murder-crime-spree
My FIL was probably one of those GI's sending hate mail to Hormel. The last few months of the war SPAM about the only meat that he ate. He was in the 90 Division of the 3rd Army and at that point in the war he rarely spent two nights in a row in the same place. Needless to say SPAM was never...