Bar in Wood Joseph Smith:

[Bruce P Bruner]

I strayed off the beaten path, this “Crab Knuckle” pre-1875 Joseph Smith was once a pin fire. You could call it a poor man’s John Rigby, Guyot or Ingram. A 12 bore with shiny tubes fractionally less than 30” and 2-9/16” chambers. It’s unknown who did the conversion, though a nice job in my eyes. It’s 6 pounds 11 ounces with a modest drop at the heel of 2-1/2” and a touch of cast off. The water table is stamped “Joseph Smith Patent 347”. I don’t know much about these, though it was interesting enough to take it home.
One strange aspect is that one barrel is Damascus while the other is Laminated, perhaps Mosaic pattern. Odd bird for sure. I have some English SxS books coming from across the pond, they may contain some information pertinent to this historical piece.

[Bruce P Bruner]

My hypothesis: Since the left barrel exhibits no evidence of a pin fire fill, it may well be a period replacement barrel. Perhaps the right barrel was the one that was replaced. That would explain the two entirely different composite barrels. It seems to be a likely explanation. If true, the work was performed by a master because there is absolutely no evidence of either rib being removed and reattached.
The breach face is clean and no radius exits where it meets the water table. I measured the distance between the tips of the firing pins, in Parker terms it’s an “0” frame. A very svelte frame it is. Very fortunate that it locks up tight, it may have seen limited use. The truth of it’s history is certainly unknown to me.

[charlie cleveland]

nice find i like those interesting barrels.........charlie

[john pulis]

Very nice Bruce. Good luck.

[Daryl Hallquist]

good photos of the single bite early action. Nice gun. Here's another.







More on Joseph Smith can be found here.

https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums...rue#Post636708

[Bruce P Bruner]

Daryl, a fine example. Break down is easily performed by simply removing the hinge pin. It was certainly a challenge for the stock maker, very intricate work to make everything fit perfectly.

[Mike Franzen]

What a beautiful and interesting gun. I can see why you took her home.

[Phil C]

Hopefully Dr Drew will be along shortly concerning the barrels. I once owned a Parker with 2 different Damascus scroll patterns and I have seen this discussed several other times.
I find it interesting that one is Damascus while the other is Laminated, but I believe this very well could have been way since day one.

[B. Dudley]

Beautiful