Ted,
I had an old friend who stocked many guns in his day and worked for another local gunmaker near me. He always said there was a special room in the LC Smith factory where they cracked all the new stocks just before they shipped them. He was also famous for his quips to customers who complained about his prices. One day a man came in to buy a plug for a Remington 870 and Harley said it would be six dollars. The customer said so and so sold them for three dollars but was out of them. Harley said he sold them for two dollars when he was out of them.
To be truthful, most of all the London best sidelocks I worked on or restocked had at least one crack in the webbing in the head of the stock. After years of oils soaking into the head of a stock will ruin the wood and make it weak. In the same breath I will say that every Smith I worked on, less than 50, were cracked.
Last edited by James Flynn; 12/21/24 04:16 PM.
