Lefever Accessories
 

The cleaning device boxes are labeled "Lefever Arms Co. Syracuse, N.Y.

A person may find that the Ideal Lubricant boxes contain something that is not an ideal lubricant, not a lubricant at all or something else entirely. I donno, but I'm not unwrapping the containers. I make no representations as to lubricating qualities.

The Ideal Lubricant box labels state made by the Lyman Gun Sight Corp'n, Middlefield, Conn, successors to The Ideal Mfg. Co. I'm guessing that Lyman bought the Ideal interests from Lefever Arms Co ( Syracuse) . There may be somebody here who knows about that.

I'm guessing that the cleaning devices were made turn of the century, as 1901 is a patent date, not a manufacturing date, and the lubricant was made early Twentieth Century. Comments?

The rod is a B.I.G.CO. ( Bridgeport Implement).

The Ideal lube is for the Ideal Bullet Lubrisizer. I have a later Model 45 Lubrisizer from the 1950s that uses the hollow sticks, which is still a common configuration. Marlin briefly owned the Ideal tool line. I believe Lyman bought the line from Marlin. The Lefever tool is not connected to Ideal loading tools. When I bought my Lubrisizer, it was filled with petrified Ideal lube and required a few hours on the stove in boiling water to remove most of the crud.

I think these are described in the Elliott Lefever book. They are the predecessors to the Tomlinson Tool I believe.

The Tomlinson cleaner was patented in April of 1891.

And Some Parker Items
 

Speaking of Tomlinson, plus a few Parker items, to see how they are received:

When I was in my early teens all I had was a few of the old Tomlinsons to clean my shotguns with. I used whatever was in my grandfathers pile of old stuff and they were it. I used them until the screens just went away.

Bruce, is the bird thing a Parker product?

I'd say European.... the bird looks like a capercille (sp?)

Bill I was wondering the same thing and also what does it do..?

The bird is a sewing bird. There should be a pin cushion on the birds back and on top of the clamp. It is Parker and is in the hardware catalogue.