WW1 GERMAN LUGER PISTOL LOADING & STRIPPING TAKE DOWN TOOL MAKER MARKED

Original WW1 German P08 luger tool.  (Abbrechenung Werkzeug für Pistole P08). Used for pistol loading and stripping.   

Roughly, 50mm x 24mm, small, blued, tooled steel, cruciform shaped tool, with a central circular hole, and slotted edge to one side and a turn up lip to one end. 

This Lugar tool is maker marked. You can see the mark in one of the images. This luger tool came with an Imperial Artillery Luger holster, stock rig and cleaning rod from 1917, it was a set.  We already sold the holster and stock rig.  You can see the holster here:  Artillery Luger Holster.

BACKGROUND: The P08 Luger pistol was developed by George Luger who has served in the Austro-Hungarian army before gaining employment with the Ludwig Löwe & Cie armaments factory in Berlin in 1891. While employed with the Löwe firm Luger examined the Borchardt pistol they manufactured which had proven to be troublesome due to its awkward recoil and bolt return system.

Luger redesigned the Borchardt pistol with a cleaner design and systems and in 1899 the first Borchardt-Luger pistol was tested. The Borchardt-Luger pistol underwent minor modifications and was accepted by the Swiss army in 1900. Further modifications in 1902 resulted in the Luger being re-calibered from 7.65mm to the standard 9mm Parabellum cartridge.

The new Luger pistol was adopted by the Imperial German Navy in 1904 and by the German army in 1908, which led to its official designation, "P08". The P08 Luger pistol saw service through-out WWI, during the Reichswehr era and on into the Third Reich.