Drew,
Nice to read your posts...you and ellnbr are my two favorite posters, even if I don't agree with you guys all the time

Respectfully, I reject the 1914 date...Liege gunsmithing was a cottage industry long before 1914...August LeBeau was long dead by 1914 and he capitalized on outworkers and they cranked out finished guns as did a great number of Liege finishing houses...maybe I misunderstood the posted information...what isn't remembered is that many outworkers were women and children...Back in the early 80's an elderly man, who grew up in Liege, told me that as soon as the sun came up, they would clear the breakfast table and begin filing parts...he and his siblings and family all participated...hid father did the final fitting.

He explained the the parts came rough in a wood bot with one finished piece wired to the top of the box and several simple gauges ( I assume go and no go)...when all parts who finished his father would take the parts to M.L.for payment and a new box of rough parts, usually the same...he made it seems as though they were seriously underpaid......he mentioned the family being so broke that there was times when they couldn't come up with the security deposit for a box of rough (forgings) parts