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Originally Posted By: PA24

L.C. Smith did not case color the forend iron on extractor guns and yours is an extractor gun, only ejector guns had case colored forend irons....

Chuck H, Bob J. -

Maybe the "artist" forgot his glasses....?....



L.C. SMITH EXTRACTOR GUN........NOTE THE FOREND IRON IS BLUED.......


L.C. SMITH EJECTOR GUN...NOTE THE POLISHED STEEL THRU PIN FOR THE EJECTORS AND THE FOREND IRON IS CCH....

By the time Marlin bought out L.C.Smith in 1945, most of the craftsman were retired or had passed away. The colors on these L.C. Smiths are more vibrant than on the earlier guns it seems.

When Marlin re-introduced the L.C.Smith in 1968, their first attempts on case hardening were awful, and many receivers and side plates were ruined. Seems no one had copied down the formula for doing such as now there was no one left from the "old school" to tell them how.

The checking on this gun looks to be pointed, and I believe that the Field Grade and Ideal Grade had "flat top checking" which would be the correct style from the inception. The lpi would be 16.

Thanks for everyones input. I'm convinced it's a restoration and bought it as such. As has been pointed out there are several faults with the gun that point to a previous restoration.
I will say that whoever did the case colors and the rust blue was a master. The blue is so even and a beautiful dark blue/black. The case colors are so close to original LC colors, even how they blend from the sideplates to the receiver.
Doug, the orange between the leather and the black spacer is rubber,not marker covered plastic,suspect the pad under the leather is possibly a Silvers or reproduction Silvers.
One interesting detail I forgot to mention that I noted before purchase is the forend iron has no serial #, possibly a replacement iron? Or did the Marlin era 20 gauges not have a serial # on the iron? Numbers on my 12 gauges are struck pretty deep,you would notice if they were ground away.

johnr:

The forend irons were usually serial numbered to the gun, possibly a Numrich NOS replacement....?.......It would be easy for you to polish and blue the forend iron if you chose.....at which time you could serial number it as well.....or send it out and have it blued and numbered.......or just leave it as it is..........

Any way you slice it John, that is a beautiful gun and as mentioned, you will get many years of pleasure from it's use....

Cheers,

Marlin had literally tons of LCS parts (and many other early L/A Marlin firearms) in storage at the NorthHaven plant in the early 70's.
Haveing brought them over in the move from New Haven, they were never officially unpacked or stocked for repair use or sale.
They were left in their packing crates. Guns sent in for repair early on to the North Haven plant were sometimes worked but that soon changed.

A few sent in for 'restoration' were given a polish and hot blue to the frame and parts. I don't remember if they touched the bbls.
I do recall a Crown 20 getting the once over though!.
The wood was given to the guys in the WoodRoom to sand and finish right along with the 336's and Mod 60 stocks.
Slack belt & drum sanders and spray on finish.
The metal went to the polishing room where the guys polishing lever actions and 30-30 bbls gave the parts a shine. Then off to the bluing room where they got a bath along with what ever else was running that day.

You'd think that if they were making the 'new' LCS, that they'd know how to polish and finish and old one. But an old piece of wood, old checkering,, metal with pitting on it, engraving, etc. A world away from a new piece of AmWal and new steel right off of the machine line.

There were only 2 guys there in the Repair Dept that had been with Marlin through the original LCS era and could actually work on them. John Miller & Larry Sisson.
Larry was in his 70's then and still at it every day dispite emphisema. John was in his upper 60's IIRC. John still had his set of assemblers tools for the LCS.
Col. Brophy was there. Any LCS that was received he had to be notified. He came right down to inspect. Sometimes he left for his office with the gun and returned.
He even took time to look up my reblued 1908 'O' grade 12 for me.

The repair dept then decided to refuse original LCS shotguns for repair (early lever actions too).
Figuring into the mix was the fact that the 'new' LCS was starting to go out the door and retail sales made $$,,not repairs on elderly shotguns.

The new LCS was a bust. Glued on ribs and vent rib. Epoxy bedded wood,,alot of epoxy in some cases.
I know one assembler used the same (brown) epoxy to attach the ribs as he used for stock bedding.
Only 2 or 3 assemblers worked on them and they were a nightmare for them to get right.

There were more than a handful in storage in a secured area with burst tubes just ahead of the chamber. I never heard why the secure storage. Some said law suits, others said set aside for R&D testing,,damage from proofing.

All those LCS parts,,Marlin lever parts,,bbls, stocks, everything down to the smallest pin and screw. All tagged, bagged or boxed with part #'s.
Never used. Customers requests for repair of those guns were returned w/ 'no parts available'.

AFAIK much (maybe all) of lot was sold to Numrich.

A new old stock forend iron could have easily been gotten from Numrich sometime in the 70's or 80's.

Marlin even had a bit of a clash with L/E over the disposal of parts and clean-up from the factory at the local dump sight.
Seems they were throwing a bit of everything away (as most factorys do!). A local picker was simply taking the assemblage from the dump sight and making up rifles & shotguns in his garage.
There was no real security at the plant then,,just walk in the side door. No fences or security gates that I remember. There used to be barrels of stuff waiting for pick-up along side the building. Sometimes you'd see receivers, bbls, other parts in them. Supposedly scrap,,but an industrious soul could certainly make something of them,,and did!
Maybe some unwanted, 'unfinished' LCS parts got tossed too. Who knows. Anything that dropped on the floor got swept up and thrown away.

American industry at it's finest.
It's fun to think back sometimes though...sorry for the rambling.

Is it really cool to stamp a serial number on an un stamped area of a Gun ?..just cause for personal jollies ?..No offence meant, or harm intended.
There a a few ways to look at this...especially if it has been done up a bit......right?
But I hope that no one stamped anything on the metal of any guns that I have bought,,that;s what I mean I guess
looks lovely to me, nice one matey
cheers
franc

I'm sure there are a lot of firearms companies that stamped the serial number on various parts. Even the lowly Field Grade, the cheapest of the hammerless guns from L.C. Smith had most of the parts serial numbered. The reason is, that even this low grade gun the parts were all hand fitted and scattered anywhere in the Hunter Arms or Marlin building/s. When the parts came back they wound up on the same gun. The for-end wood was serial numbered as was the stock.

So as being, there really is no need to serial number this for-end, it fits and won't get lost with other parts. To stamp it would mean you would have the right size numbers and do it correctly.
Does it matter?