Just a follow up to this thread. I have located a couple of New old stock forend blanks and I would like to show them here for your information.
Actually at the time that I posted this thread, I already had one of these blanks in my possession. I had gotten it out of the Bill Scwarts estate (of Lefever Arms in Lee Center, NY). I had thought it was an aftermarket made unfinished forend blank since it had no latch inletting cut into it. But then I recently found another one just like it from a different source. In showing these to a local collector who knew all the guys at Lefevers very well, he confirmed that these are new old stock forend blanks from the factory. He said that every one he has ever seen was beavertail.
The latch and draw bolt inletting were clearly secondary operations that were performed after the forend iron was fitted to the blank. Maybe in the late days all blanks started as beavertail sized blanks and they just sawed off the sides and shortened them for a splinter. Who knows.
But... the vast majority of guns were splinter guns. So, I find it hard to believe it would have been this way.
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