doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca Lewis 1s information

I have acquired a new project SxS for this coming winter months. The gun is a Lewis Grade 1S 12b S# 101xxx. As I acquired it, this gun comes with two barrels in laminate twist. One is 32" and the other is 28". All came with the original canvas case and three piece cleaning rod. The 32" barrels appear to be the most used with the 28" kept in the case. The gun is in good condition with almost no wear on the barrels or the wood and receiver. Of course someone could not resist the urge to bugger some of the screws. I would like to get more information on the Lewis model including how to disassemble, clean and reassemble the receiver. I only wish to clean and oil the internals. The stock wood is clean and unblemished, but a bit dry. The butt plate is intact but well worn. I would like to reapply the correct period finish. Charles Snyder's book is out of reach dollar wise so I am looking for information on this Ithaca. Any help gratefully appreciated.

Photos
Ithaca Lewis 1904




32" P2 and 28" P1




28" barrels:

Have you tried ordering Walt Snyder’s book thru you local inter-library loan? I’ve gone so for several book’s similarly out of reach. Best of luck with the restoration.

Excellent idea. Checked my online resellers and blanched. Will check my library. Thanks

These screw plugs in the receiver end of each rib are interesting. Appear to be original as the barrels appear to not have been refinished. If you have Snyder's book let me know if he provides any information on this characteristic of the Ithaca Lewis model.

Letfly, I am far from an expert but those screws look to me like the ribs are coming loose and a "repair" was done. The screw heads don't even match.

Thanks, Carl. No surprise here when I loosened the gun screws. Old timey rib repair, both barrels. Even used an engraved gun screw. Without the screw each rib pops up for about four to five inches and then tight. Makes me wonder why they both came loose as I have a number of equally aged SxS's, other makers, with solid ribs. An Ithaca Lewis bolting issue or using modern smokeless? The later would be my guess.

Okay, they are what they are. The question is can this be repaired without a complete stripping and relaying the rib?



Engraved the screw head

I have not stripped a Lewis before but most guns with a rib extension, Fox Lc Smith etc, have the rear portion of the rib silver soldered in place. That area is under a lot of stress, hence the higher strength solder. I can likely be repaired but that would be a very big job. The amount of heat require would result in a full relay as well as possibly causing issues with the lug. I would be shocked if it was soft soldered at the factory. Good luck with it.
Steve

SKB, good info. Thanks. Question? As the extension is integral to the entire rib on this gun, how would the rib have been installed with different solder and higher temps? I am not a gunsmith. On other SxS I observe that the rib is separate from the rib unit which would allow first silver soldering in the extension along with the barrel lug as a separate action and then laying in the rib itself at lower temperature. Curious?

If it is all one piece then it was likely done with soft solder originally. I do not know of any American guns using hard solder for ribs though some Belgium guns do. If it is soft soldered I would suspect the barrels became loose and after repeated firing and then the rib solder failed.

Just screw it back down and shoot the gun. A proper repair would become a bottomless pit and you’d never climb out.