Gary,
I have 5 LeFevers in the shop right now for various refinishing projects. They range from the lowly DS up through 2 GE's, all pretty pedestrian as LeFevers go, but certainly where the bulk of production was. The CC on all of the is visible only in the protected areas. If I were to hazzard a guess as to the wood/bone charcoal mix/percentages-that is what determines which end of the color spectrum gets favored-I'd say Uncle Dan's folks used somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20% bone charcoal to wood. To my eye and based on the ones I have inspected, Uncle Dan's color are/were closer to the Parker type than to the L.C. Smith variety. As to who can duplicate the original? Well ther are several commercial outfits that do quite well. Best. BILL
