Frank Lefever
 

over the summer time I finished up a pretty extensive project in bringing back a special Lefever from the scrap heap. The gun was found in Utica, NY where it had been in the same family for at least 60+ years. And the state of the gun was as they had always knew it. Poor. The barrels had been cut to 26" from the assumed original length of 32". The ribs were loose. The buttstock was hacked up and scarfed together from a few different pieces of wood. The trigger guard was cut, drilled and mangled. The engraving was dirty, worn and there were some mechanical issues as well as bent up trigger shoes. The gun was passed on by a few people before the current owner saw its potential and decided to rescue it. As well as being very dedicated to bringing it back to its rightful state.

The gun is odd in that instead of is being marked "Lefever Arms Co.", the side plates are engraved "Frank Lefever". Frank was one of Uncle Dan Lefevers Sons, he worked in the Lefever factory, and later on for Hollenbeck/3 barrel/Royal, Hunter Arms and Remington. And after that opening his own gunsmithing operation, also named the Lefever Arms Co. First in Ilion, then Frankfort and then carried on by his son in Lee Center.

It is a real curiosity as to why the gun bears his name. Was it a personal gun? Was it a presentation gun? An apprenticeship gun? Who knows. The gun is not unique in that one other gun has been found with the name "Frank Lefever" on it. That gun was about 10,000 serial numbers ahead of this one. both are a curiosity for sure.

Below are summaries of some of the work done on the gun as well as finished photos of the project. The gun was being displayed in Vegas last weekend by the owner, maybe some of you saw it?



The gun when it was found.


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installation and shaping of a new horn forend tip. As well as refinishing the original forend and recutting its checkering.


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The original trigger guard strap had to be cut off and another one welded on. Along with some light reshaping of the new scrap to match the Lefever style. The guard is shown below next to an original Lefever straight grip guard. Geoffroy Engraved the strap and I finished it for an aged look.


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The stock blank chosen to be put on the gun.


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And some photos of the finished gun. Breck Gorman also stripped and relayed the ribs and refinished the barrel finish. There is nothing that could be done about the cut barrels. in the long run, 26" is not all that bad. At least they were not shorter. Or else we would have been looking for replacement barrels too.
I replaced all of the screws on the gun as well, also engraved by Geoffroy.


Enjoy.


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That is an excellent result!

Thanks for sharing this, Brian. Masterful work!

just wow....charlie

Holy Cow. Brian, did any of the metal engraving require hand touch up or chasing? It looks amazing.

Not really. Just a little bit at the back of the top tang around the screw. Everything cleaned up very well with just ultrasonic cleaning.

What an amazing reclamation. Great example of extraordinary craftsmanship.

Brian great work as always.

Another great project Brian, is there an accounting of what this restoration cost the current owner? I'm wondering if restoring a beautiful gun like that would be more costly than finding an equivalent unless the current owner came from the family that owned it originally.

It was a labor of love for sure and I am thankful to the owner for being committed to saving the gun as that is what it was about. Anyone should know that none of these things are worth what is spent on them for restoration. It just is what it is.

I will not publicly share the cost of the work. If you have a specific project you are interested in, you can feel free to contact me.