Grantham,
You asked for my "read" on something you wrote. Are you asking for my opinion of the strength on a Syracuse made LC Smith or perhaps the accuracy of your gunsmith's statement?
Concerning the design of the early Smith, I'd like to see a clear photo of the
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it has the first design bottom barrel lug, with squared corners.
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Perhaps your gunsmith was refering to a square rather than radius of the intersection where the water table meets the standing breach? Yes, some older guns with that design were prone to cracking. I have also seen actions with radious' that cracked in that area. That stated, this may or not be true for this particular LC Smith. A photo of the gun and serial number would be necessary to conduct research into the strength of whatever era gun it was.
Also consider; under what conditions did the actions crack, what percentage of total produced cracked, and is their any evidence rather than old gunsmith's tales to verify this?
Even if that Smith was of a design of which some actions may have cracked under very unknown conditions, I'd load at 6000 psi and shoot the heck out of it!
Mark