John
I'm glad to know that you have rescued that old Smith gun and have given it a good home, but that forend wood really looks odd on this early Syracuse era gun; and based on original repair jobs I've seen, I have difficulty believing that replacement wood represents factory work? Early Quality 2 Smith guns had no inlays (higher grades typically featured metal single or double diamond inlays); the forend wood was mostly covered with very fine checkering, then finished off with the "jug" shaped ebony tip. Early Syracuse forend woods were also wider and shaped differently than those from the Hunter Arms period. Considering that it is not rare to see the occasional early Hunters Arms transition period Grade 2 with a metal forend inlay as Syracuse era parts were used being used up by Hunter, that transition period had ended long before the type forend seen here became standard. The shape and checkering coarseness seen on this forend replacement wood more closely resembles what would be found on a post transition, later production pre-13 Grade 2 extractor gun, or a post-13 Ideal Grade extractor gun with the "push-button" forend release than what should be found on a Syracuse era Smith. Also, on the factory wood repairs I've seen to date, the company did at least duplicate checkering coarseness so that checkered forend and grip panels were consistent. Please don't interpret my comments negatively, as they are based solely on personal observation and experience; and I'm certainly not claiming that the replacement wood on this Smith is not factory work. I'm simply stating that the fact checkering coarseness seen on the replacement forearm fails to match that on the grip is out of character for Hunter Arms factory work; and falls far below the level of quality I've seen demonstrated by the Hunter Arms repair shop on all other examples I've seen.
As an aside, Hunter Arms had a superb and very busy repair shop capable of performing any and all repairs that could possibly be done on or to a Smith gun. I presently own a 10-bore Smith gun that began life as a Quality 2 Syracuse era hammerless. At some point the 32" barrels from this gun were returned to Hunter's repair shop; and although we will never know the extent of the work requested, the end result was an entirely new (save for the salvaged barrels) Grade O hammerless Smith gun. The rib extension of Syracuse era barrels were slightly modified and fitted to a new Hunter Arms era Regular frame (I'm thinking around 1908, because this frame lacks the bushed firing pins feature); but the early roll-style joint check from the Syracuse barrels was retained and the new frame milled and fitted accordingly (the roll joint check feature was dropped from production before 1900). A new fore iron was then made to fit the frame and barrels, but was modified so that the device fore iron used to raise shells for extraction was eliminated (not necessary with the roll-type joint check which served to raise shells and also stop forward barrel rotation); then all new furniture was fitted and checkered in the standard Grade O pattern. The butt plate, grip cap, and forend tip inlays consistent to that production period were incorporated into the finished furniture, the frame engraved to Grade 0 standards; and the gun given new factory finishes. The Quality 2 Grade mark on the barrel flats was over-stamped "O"; and the serial number from the barrel flats was stamped onto the new Grade "O" frame water-table. This the second Repair Shop Smith gun I've seen built from an older set of Syracuse era barrels; the other having begun life as a rare 10-bore "C" Quality hammer gun whose barrels were used to create a straight-gripped Grade 2E 10-bore ejector gun with HOT trigger unit (the frame and stock from the "C" hammer still exist, don't know what became of the original fore iron).
