A hammerless with a fishtail lever is extra cool!

Guys, If any one knows how to move a photo or photos, Go to photo fridays page three fourth from the bottom, blog titled One Of The Last, A picture of my grade three top lever hammer gun with the cut out hammer. I donot know how to do it or I would, thanks Gary

The hammer that I photographed was notched so that the gun would open with hammer UN COCKED.
It was a 1 frame hammer gun with fishtail lever.
The fishtail allowed opening when cocked and the notch allowed opening when uncocked.

I would think any hammer gun could be opened, un-cocked, without the notch.

Here's Gary's Grade 3 hammer gun:

I wonder if Parker notched the hammer on the request of the original purchaser. I have never seen another example of a notched hammer.

This could have been done after the fact also by the owner. Just another possibility.

This grade 3 hammer gun is a 2 frame, Gary

I tested it. The gun would not be able to be opened without the notch there.

That notch looks pretty deep in the photo. You would think that would weaken the hammer.

This problem of whether a gun could be opened with the right hammer cocked or worse yet, if it could be opened if the right hammer NOT cocked and required both a fishtail lever AND a notched hammer really brings the spotlight on the department responsible for fitting locks and hammers to a particular gun. There were/are several known sizes and shapes of Parker Bros. hammers and it seems like it ought to have been a 'no brainer' to fit a correctly sized or shaped hammer to a gun necessitating only ONE of these modifications. It seems somebody was not doing his job to the best of his ability... IMHO