doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LC Smith Restoration

Be aware that you will get recommendations from guys who really don't know the difference between a good period correct restoration, and a simple refinish. It takes a bit of research to find out what finishes were used at the time your gun was built, what the correct case hardening colors looked like, which parts were blued and which were case hardened, etc.

For example, I have an L.C. Smith Field Grade Featherweight 16 ga. that had a dark and severely alligatored stock finish. By the appearance, I was certain it was shellac, so removed most of it with methyl alcohol and refinished it with garnet shellac. The result was very pleasing without screaming "refinished". But I also have a newer 12 gauge Ideal Grade that appears to have a factory original varnish finish. Factories do sometimes change their finishing methods, like in the 1980's when GM totally forgot how to paint cars.

I know of one guy who was often recommended for Lefever restorations. Unfortunately, his case colors weren't even close to original Lefever colors, and he only did a brown and white finish for Damascus barrels. Lefever original Damascus barrel rust bluing was always black and white. He did real nice work, but much of it was wrong.

We have no idea what the current condition of your gun is, but it is likely that the cost of a good restoration will exceed the current value. And if the gun is already in nice condition, any work done may actually lower the value. I'm not a big fan of restorations or refinishing, except on guns that have been abused or really neglected. I'll take a 70% original finish over a 100% incorrect refinish any day. But I'll admit that a very well done period correct restoration job can be hard to argue with.

Bill is still working. Dropped off a gun earlier this week with him.

Jerry is your guy. He imo is priced on the lower side and does very nice work.

I did something similar about 40 years ago, bought a 20 ga field Lightweight and had a new stock semi inletted. I finished the stock work including checkering and had the barrels reblacked. I should have done the barrels first because they didn't come out very good. I could only do this because I bought it cheap, the semi inletted stock wasn't too expensive and I didn't have kids at the time. I also had young eyes. It was a learning experience and the gun came out fairly nice.

caddy: No. 00, 0, Field & Ideal grade guns were finished with shellac.
Zinsser Bulls-Eye 3 Pound Cut Amber Shellac is similar to the original product.

Higher grade guns were oil finished. Hunter Arms Co. used "Rose Oil" finish; a formula which included Spar Varnish, Japan Drier, boiled linseed oil, and other secret ingredients.
A brief description of the process may be found in "L.C. Smith: The Legend Lives"

There is more information, and images of original finishes in the "Maintenance and Restoration" section of the LCSCA FAQs
https://lcsca.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=274&club_id=43784

A 1943 20g Field about as close to factory original as one can find



The action, lockplates, and top lever (and hammers on hammer guns) were case color hardened.

Forend iron was case colored on higher grade and ejector guns; extractor 0, 00, Ideal and Field were Nitre Blued.

Lockplate connector screws may be case colored or blued. FW lockplate retaining screws were case colored. The trigger plate retaining screw was mostly case colored but also blued.

The trigger guard and screws were Nitre Blued, as was the top-lever screw in the trigger plate.

Turnbull Restorations 1919 20g A2 Ejector

1928 like new and original Field Ejector

Those look pretty nice Dr. Drew, thankyou.

Thanks Drew for the pictures.

Preacher, are those your own guns, or just pictures from your vast collection of gun pictures?

The pic of the "1928 like new and original Field Ejector" seems to confirm what I said about finishes possibly changing over time. Your rules, apparently from the LCSCA FAQS says:


However, we can clearly see vivid case colors on the forend iron of your "1928 like new and original Field Ejector" example. Actually, I'm suspicious that at very least, the case colors might have been redone on that gun. Although not in unfired condition, I'd expect to see colors more akin to these on an original L.C. Smith field grade:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1110555647

Very good restorations have been known to fool even experienced collectors. And there is a lot of incentive to attempt to pass off restorations as unmolested originals.

Also 53caddy, you might wish to contact Mike Hunter of Hunter Restorations to see if he does L.C. Smith's. He is very attuned to the concept of keeping restorations period correct and as original looking as possible. Mike can be found on the Member's list here.

And for just barrel bluing, you could ask another member here who has the screen name LeFusil. Dustin is meticulous in his barrel prep, and invested a lot of time to learn which rusting solutions gave him the results he demanded.