doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com L C Smith butchery..

No, No, that's NOT a picture of my lathe, only a picture of one that's similar. I'll have to unpack mine and see if it is marked. Mine has the multiple pulley set up on the end, you change speed by moving the v-belt to different pulley combinations on the lathe and motor, similar to what I have to do on my large drill press..I'll try and post actual pictures of my lathe when I unpack it..

Ok...I know this too has been butchered, but I can't help what previous owners do to fine shotguns. I'm posting pictures to try and determine from more experienced collectors if this has been nickel-plated, chromed, or just buffed to a high polish.

Strange thing is, there is original color case on the watertable, and the flat of the forend iron.
Thanks.

I'll vote for highly polished. Is that wire wheel marks on the fore end iron? The "L C SMITH" engraving looks like it was wheel buffed to me as well. I'm also interested in what the real experts and collectors think... Nice candidate for restoration, though..

I'd say polished/buffed. holes look dished and side lock edges are slightly rounded. Axles of hammer and sear are also buffed.

Plus, I think, while possible, it would be pretty difficult to plate one surface while leaving the action flats untouched.

Not the end of the world as far a "butchery" goes. Just shoot it or send it in for new colors IMHO.

It's an LC Field grade. What sold me though is the fact that it is a Longrange. 32"bbls. .730 bores in both tubes with no pitting. 4" of choke constriction ending in full both barrels. The barrels are sound and I was hoping the receiver could be fixed. How does one go about removing the high polish look?

Buffed up original surface I'd guess.

The top lever looks about ready to pop free of the mack spring they use inside as a lever return spring.

Let the lever back to the locked position and tap it back down in place from the top side with a non-maring hammer,,or even the plastic head of a big screw driver.
Then on the bottom of the action, you'll probably see the small top-lever pivot screw backed out of the trigger plate a few turns.

To get at the screw, you'll most likely have to take the guard screws out,,free the guard tang and unscrew the trigger guard 1/4 turn so the bow is out of the way.
Then tighten the top lever pivot screw backup.
Make sure it's tight but not too tight that it's jams the top lever. It's supposed to fit w/a shoulder so that doesn't happen but that doesn't always come about in a perfect world.

If the top lever works it's way upwards a bit more, it'll disengage from the top lever spring w/a healthy 'snap'. Then you'll have to take the trigger plate off and do that reassemble job that everyone talks about.
Actually not hard to do w/a pin punch and a screw driver w/a slot in the end as the factory did. Just takes a little thought, about 5 seconds with no reason to fear the heavy spring.

Getting rid of the polished look is easy,,getting rid of the rounded edges and blurred lines, lettering and holes is a little tougher. The latter is a quality polishing job to square things back up.
I'd suggest annealing the metal first before doing any of that polishing and case color work.

The high shine will disappear with it and you can put back any gloss you want. A 400grit would be more than plenty for a LCS Field grade.
Touch up the lettering when done.
It'll be ready for a new case color at that time.

Just my thoughts.

Talk to Turnbull Manufacturing.(turnbullmfg.com) about a recase and a a recut on the lettering. I have seen his recase work and don't believe anybody could do any better; maybe match it, but not better it. But I'm a rank amateur.

If it were mine in that condition, I'd send it in to John Gillette at Classic Guns for case colors since it's a long range. Depending on who you ask, you may not even need to anneal it first in it's current state. They can nitre the forend iron also.