I'm not sure why you would say that Ed. I think it would make perfect sense to stamp the info on the sideplates at some point before case hardening. And engraving is also done when the surface is in an unhardened state.
So if there were sideplates in process at the time of the sale to Ithaca, then those partially finished parts would likely have been transported to Ithaca, N.Y. for final finishing. It was known and publicized that they were assembling and selling sideplates Lefevers from the inventory of remaining parts, so it would not make sense to simply scrap sideplates that had already been stamped with the Syracuse address. And it appears that the number of sideplates stamped Ithaca, N.Y. is pretty small, including guns acknowledged to have features pointing to Ithaca assembly.
But I can't prove that... and neither can anyone else. Unfortunately, a great deal of conjecture stated as facts has misled a couple generations of Syracuse Lefever collectors.
