Could this be the remains of the mythical Haenel 27 air pistol?

[Epicyclic]

Referring to the three illustrations in the 1927 catalogues. They show the model '27' with an 'open-top' trigger guard- the trigger top tight up to the cylinder (probably stopping against it ). This arrangement is also shown in the line drawing of a '27' in your book ( the one above Collectors notes ).
Being a heavily loaded area ( witness my snapped late model 26...), the trigger guard was closed at the top maybe after a re-think or testing prior to being put into production. The aesthetics are affected by the 3mm put up top but the strength is greatly improved.

Referring to the images of the straight-pinned example, my attention is drawn to the pin which appears to be a bit knocked at on the l/h/s and has an odd r/h head in the larger-seeming drilled diameter. Is this a pin that is fitted within a threaded no-keeper screw pivot drilling? Would the owner have a look at this...

I have two of these, No 2810- slotted screw with keeper and a no serial No - slotted screw without keeper for the record.

[Buck25]

The three illustrations in the 1927 catalogues show the model '27' with an 'open-top' trigger guard- the trigger top tight up to the cylinder (probably stopping against it ). This arrangement is also shown in the line drawing of a '27' in your book ( just above Collectors notes ).
Being a heavily loaded area ( witness my snapped late model 26...�� ), the trigger guard was closed at the top maybe after a re-think or testing prior to being put into production. The aesthetics are affected by the 3mm put up top but the strength is greatly improved.

Referring to the images of the straight-pinned example, my attention is drawn to the pin which appears to be a bit knocked at on the l/h/s and has an odd r/h head. Is this a pin that is fitted within a threaded no-keeper screw pivot drilling? Would the owner have a ganders maybe?

I have two of these, No 2810- slotted screw with keeper and a no serial No - slotted screw without keeper for the record.

I agree with Epicyclic regarding the pin fitting as it does seem odd. My attention was also drawn to the font style of HAENEL on the right grip medallion. It is a smaller font that appears to be a replacement medallion.

[ccdjg]

Referring to the three illustrations in the 1927 catalogues. They show the model '27' with an 'open-top' trigger guard- the trigger top tight up to the cylinder (probably stopping against it ). This arrangement is also shown in the line drawing of a '27' in your book ( the one above Collectors notes ).
Being a heavily loaded area ( witness my snapped late model 26...), the trigger guard was closed at the top maybe after a re-think or testing prior to being put into production. The aesthetics are affected by the 3mm put up top but the strength is greatly improved.
.

A very good point, but I should add that only the Geco illustration shows a Mod.27 with an 'open-top' trigger guard. My pictures of the other two catalogue entries are not as clear as they could be (my fault as they were taken with my phone rather than scanned), but they do in fact show the "closed-top" trigger guard version. The line drawing you mention was taken from the original Schmeisser patent, so the original prototype would have had this open-top design. This makes me incline even more to the idea that Geco jumped the gun a bit and used an illustration from Haenel that was a pre-launch impression, and never reflected the true appearance of the marketed gun, but for some reason Geco insisted on sticking with it for a few years. This design could have course come onto the market for a short while, and I agree with you, the intrinsic fragility would have soon brought about re-vamp by Haenel.

Thanks for the new addition to the list.

I agree with Epicyclic regarding the pin fitting as it does seem odd. My attention was also drawn to the font style of HAENEL on the right grip medallion. It is a smaller font that appears to be a replacement medallion.

Both are interesting observations. I think the pistol may have had a bit of restoration, but it is still a more informative example than the original relic.

[Garvin]

I agree with Epicyclic regarding the pin fitting as it does seem odd. My attention was also drawn to the font style of HAENEL on the right grip medallion. It is a smaller font that appears to be a replacement medallion.

As Bruce Jr suggests, the medallions may be replacements. Or at least one of them - one is plain text and the other is italic.

[Buck25]

Appears that it might be time to update the table on the HAP serial numbers. Renowned airgun collector and author Larry Hannusch has HAP serial #2130 in his collection. This example (shown below) falls between those previously identified with & without the keeper screw. So there are 121 more specimens out there built with no keeper screw. This example also has the earlier smooth Haenel medallion.



We can also add serial #1924 as a confirmed example of the slotted screw with no keeper screw (shown below). I am surprised that with over 700 individuals viewing this Post that more HAP examples have not been identified. With regards to all Haenel air pistols, of the 600+ serial numbers I have documented, only the Mod 26 & Mod 28R have serial numbers under 1,000.

[ccdjg]

Many thanks for the additional information Bruce, which certainly helps with the serial number range for the non-keeper screw models. Stll a way to go though, so any further data from readers of this would be very welcome.

I have now updated the serial number table to include all the new data so far:

[AndrewE]

I'm not sure if this thread is dead or it worth posting on it. I picked up S.no 4333 today and it's very worse for wear. It doesn't have a pivot pin in it or keeper and only one medallion.
How should I restore it. Oily rag of full restore? I work at a shotgun stock makers and have my own hot caustic tanks. I've already made new pivot pin and keeper pin from blanks so I can get it working I can also make, inlay and engrave a replacement medallion.
If I go down the restoration route was the original finish a gloss or a matt blacking

[Mobiasstrip]

I now also have 3096. Unsurprisingly with keeper screw. Steve

[Jerry Cornelius]

I'm not sure if this thread is dead or it worth posting on it. I picked up S.no 4333 today and it's very worse for wear. It doesn't have a pivot pin in it or keeper and only one medallion.
How should I restore it. Oily rag of full restore? I work at a shotgun stock makers and have my own hot caustic tanks. I've already made new pivot pin and keeper pin from blanks so I can get it working I can also make, inlay and engrave a replacement medallion.
If I go down the restoration route was the original finish a gloss or a matt blacking

This should help on the finish https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery....enel-model-28/

I’d restore it personally, if it’s very tatty. They aren’t scarce.

[AndrewE]

This should help on the finish https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery....enel-model-28/

I’d restore it personally, if it’s very tatty. They aren’t scarce.

I thought the model 27 was scarce.

[ccdjg]

I thought the model 27 was scarce.

I think there is still some misunderstanding here. The "true" Haenel 27, as depicted in 1927 catalogues has never been found. The pistol you have is "The Haenel Air Pistol", which is a Haenal 28 made before Haenel needed to give it a number, and before they had introduced the cheaper Haenel 26. Obviously when the Haenel 26 came onto the market they had to come up with some means of differentiating them by name, so the "The Haenel Air Pistol" was called the "Haenel 28" (presumably because it was first sold in 1928), and as the cheaper model had to have a lower number, it was called the "Haenel 26". (They would not have wanted to call it the "27" as that name had already been used previously).

So I agree with the advice given previously, your pistol is not sufficiently rare for you to be too precious about preserving its originality, and it makes more sense to restore it sympathetically back to a presentable, working, gun.

[AndrewE]

As long as I'm not doing anything historically criminal I'm happy to crack on and restore it. I would rather ask people who know rather than the bloke down the pub.
Thanks all for your help.