History:
The Model 8 appeared in 1920 on the market and was of big success immediately. The new pistol not only looked fashionable, but also had a lot of new construction details, which got practical for many of the pistols following after. By that this model by good reasons may be adressed as predecessor of the PP oder PPK.
Because of that reason together with this model a lot of patents were issued:
Patent No.325374 from 1919-06-24 (issued 1920-09-13) covered the design of the turnable hammer-axle as safety,
Patent No.334042 from 1919-07-15 (issued 1921-09-03) coverd the movable triggerguard as lock for disassembling,
Patent No.335901 from 1919-11-30 as additional patent enhanced this construction,
Patent No.319461 from 1919-06-24 (issued 1920-03-08) covered the kind of fixing the grip-plates by medaillons,
Patent No.326373 from 1919-12-30 as additional patent enhanced this construction,
Patent No.334448 from 1919-07-15 (issued 1921-03-15) coverd the separated firing-pin-case with extractor.
The new pistol was favorite at many different official institutions and the demand for this new modern pistol was enormous. There were dedicated discounts for governmental departmenst issued in the catalogues. So for instance the standard model in 1933 costed 27,50 Reichsmark, when ordering 10 - 24 pcs.there were 5% and with 25 - 99 pcs. there were 7.5 % discount announced.
Besides the blued standard-design there were a big variety of deluxe designs, different engravings, grips and finish available.
From the technical point of view there were three main variations produced, where the first, the earliest one (see picture), had the patented firing-pin casing with internal extractor, and the movable trigger-guard was held by a small latch at the right front side of the trigger guard.
The production lasted on to the end of the protected patent-period in the year of 1943, where in total about 500.000 pcs. were made. The numbering was done together with the other models produced at Walther at that time. Still, in spite of the end of production in 1934, this pistole was offered in many gun-catalogues up to 1939/40. This first variation was produced from about serial no. 390.000 to serial no. 465.700
Technical Data:
SYSTEM: self-cocking pistol with mass system and internal hammer
CARTRIDGES : 8
CALIBRE : .25 ACP
BARREL LENGTH : 77.6 mm , 6 grooves right hand twisting
WEIGHT EMPTY : 335 g
TOTAL LENGTH : 134 mm
TOTAL HEIGHT : 93 mm
TOTAL WIDTH : 26 mm
TRIGGER : Single Action
SIGHT : fix
SAFETY : safety-lever
FINISH : blued
GRIPS : hard rubber