Odd Walther PPK

[Anzac15]

Found this today at a pawn shop.....it is what appears to be a 1968 Walther PPK. Left side markings are almost worn off, which that right there is kind of odd to me. Matching serial numbers, barrel is '68' with stag horn and eagle over 'N', not import marked in any way, and no 'Made In West Germany' anywhere...but the really odd thing to me is that this PPK seems to be 'parkerized', and it looks as though it always was. No bluing peeking out anywhere on the inside, in fact, where it's worn, it just seems in the white. Thoughts?

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[browningautorifle]

Well that's easy. It's been parkerized after it had badly rusted and pitted. That's all those pits under the Parkerizing...then bead blasted to remove all the rust and there you have it. This could have migrated out of Germany through the return of a posted soldier, we had enough guys bring stuff back that they'd bought and had never declared or registered here...that's another story.

[Anzac15]

Yeah, but a 1968 PPK? It's no WW2 bring back. Who would think of Parking one of these?

[browningautorifle]

It's just a method of finish... I parkerized lots of stuff through time, including a 7600 Remington pump rifle that kept coming back from hunting rusty. Bead blast and park or blue. Park is a coating that you don't need as much prep for, no polishing and it hides imperfections to some extent. Like this one. There's really nothing special here, except you have a nice little PPK to shoot or carry.

[Anzac15]

Found this under the grip tonight....pretty neat.

[browningautorifle]

Very neat. I wouldn't know if that's a social security number or what? That is...57-7462725-51... Any thoughts? If it were a social security number how would it read?

[vintage hunter]

The 7-25-51 I take to be a date because of the - between numbers. ''John's'' birthday? The others do appear to be part of a ssn, which would read xxx-57-7462

[browningautorifle]

All of our numbers are vastly different from your...so... But I certainly agree with the B-Day idea. The other, could it be the serial from another gun? It was common for some makers to pencil the gun number on the inside of the grips.

[Anzac15]

I'd say the 7-25-51 is definitely a date....as it was suggested earlier, possibly John's birthday. He would have been 17 when this pistol was made. The upper number, possibly part of a SSN.

[vintage hunter]

From here it looks like all the engraving was done at the same time with the same tool. Possibly something along the lines of a Dremel with a 1/16'' ball point wood carving/engraving tool.