Rick, come over here and sit on Uncle Bill's knee. Rick, there are order books and there are stock books. The order book is kind of a synopsis of how the gun will be configured. It doesn't include every detail, but it does include the buyer's name and a fair description of the gun he wants. The work order cards get very specific, much more than the order book entry, with the smaller details mentioned. The order book very seldom specifies a frame size, but some savvy customers did actually know about frame sizes and those requests very occasionally end up in the order book. On the other hand, the stock book is something different altogether. It's entries include all the details of the finished gun. When the order book entry is made, the gun is not finished, sometimes not even started. The serial number is entered in the order book only after the gun is completed, some weeks or whatever after the original order entry is made. The stock book entry includes all of barrel steel type and length, stock dimensions, finished weight, pattern testing, and yes, the frame size in some eras. As far as duplicating a specific gun, the order book and the stock book entries would probably have been researched to create the second gun. However, in some eras, the frame size would only be a guess, and looking at the gun would be the only reliable source of information. Another missing detail in both the order book and stock book would be the unstruck barrel weight. Only the gun would give that piece of information.
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