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Mark, Congrats! The stock looks great. I believe Dr. Bob owns a beautiful early straight grip 10 gauge special order gun.

Was that stock English walnut?

It's been a long time since I saw it, but I knew a gentleman from Louisville KY who had a Barber & Lefer 10 ga hammer gun. I had barrels probably 28" though I never actually measured them & I seriously doubt it weighed more the 7� lbs. I would have called it a 10ga field gun, not a water-fowler. I am pretty certain as best I can remember it that it had a straight gripped stock. I don't know the actual grade but was nicely engraved.

The re-worked stock certainly has nicer lines than it did. I take it there was enough extra material to remove the inlet for the brass shield that was on the right side?



It is often tough to positively identify walnut species without looking at the cellular structure under a microscope. But I thought that this buttstock is probably black walnut (possibly claro), because of the very open grain and large pores. It does appear to be more dense in the head and wrist area, which should help some when checkering. I do realize that this is probably not a permanent solution. I believe the original forend tip would have been horn, and I also believe that Dan Lefever used English Walnut exclusively.

I do not have all the available catalog reprints but do have some from 1889 to 1913. In all the ones I have the wood is listed variably as either English or French walnut. In the 1913 catalog, the DS grade is listed simply as Imported Walnut. It is extremely doubtful they were "Importing" American Black Walnut.

Keith and Miller are both right. I went back and started at the first post. The gun was restocked, crudely in black. Mark did a great job reshaping it into a
much better looking stock. The man has talent.

Thanks for the comments everyone. It's starting to come together. After checkering and replacing the forend tip, the forend is done, and with a coat of finish on the stock, I can see that it has some nice color and a bit of figure that I can do something with. Trying to replicate original flat top checkering is definitely a challenge.

I'll have to inlet the long tang trigger guard before I can checker the stock. It will be here this week. I'll have to re-shape it to match the other two original long tang straight grip Lefevers I have. I'll blue/brown it for now, maybe rub some off so it doesn't look too new, and then send it out next off season for engraving. I'm not really crazy about the overall dark patina metal, but I don't want it to look like a new gun either. I'll try to freshen it up a bit with some polishing compound and a scotch brite pad, unless someone has a better solution. I'm all ears. Thanks.

Yeeee Hawwww !
Thank you for the update
Mike

Well, I think I'm finished for now, unless I decide to refinish the the barrels at some point. I cleaned the receiver metal, and I like it the way it is. I also did a light grain enhancement on the wood, befitting the understated nature of the engraving. Next offseason I'll send the trigger guard out for engraving, and I'll get a nice hard case with a Lefever label for it too. In the meantime, here she is:

Very nice, Mark. Tastefully done.