It recently came up in another thread about originality of a set of M frame stocks from roughly the same era and that they are original despite the diamond surrounding the escutcheon being wildly off centre.

I stated these stocks cannot contain factory original checkering as Smith & Wesson would not allow for such sloppy workmanship—especially, IMHO, the stocks were likely checkered beginning with a diamond surrounding the escutcheon and the checkering pattern radiating outward from there.

Here are 15 pair of N frame stocks(in one photograph, a pair are depicted side by side with the mate beneath and this not a pair, but two pair—the lower left hand grouping of the middle photograph), pre war, 1910 to 1920, all but one being the medallion style, the non medallion with concave contour dating from 1907 to mid 1910.

2 of these pair are attached to Triple Lock revolvers.

All are wonderfully centered on the diamond, the checkering radiating outward to predefined margins.

How many pair do I need to prove workmanship would not allow for such poor layout such that the escutcheon screw/escutcheon are not centered within the diamond created by the absence of checkering in this specific location?

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I have not seen an off center set. Don’t even need to go look at mine, I agree.

These are much newer but definitely off center. I think I have an older set as well. I wouldn't think they would have got by in the early days.

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Is it possible they could have been a factory seconds set?

I wonder if they marked there seconds

Rich, those grips would have taken no more than a couple minutes at most to produce. I doubt they used seconds, it’s just production, nothing more.

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Yes, a much newer pair. This thread was referencing stocks that are pre WWII. Actually, 1920 or before.

Quality control from within our lifespan isn’t quite what it once was.

Ian, while I can appreciate your point of view, I can't completely agree with it. Smith & Wesson has made hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millinons, of revolvers (speaking of pre-war guns) and surely there were imperfections and mistakes that made it out the door. In fact, I even have a Model 1 "2D QUALITY" that S&W sold at a discount due to imperfections in the casting. At least they marked them as such, but I know that not all of their stocks were perfect from the factory.

I only have 4 pre-war revolvers with factory diamond center wood checkered stocks, and two of them have off centered escutcheons.

The first one is from a .32 RP, shipped 1927, serial # matches gun. It is considerably off center.

The second one is a set of pre war N frame magnas. The escutcheon is not wildly off center, but it is quite noticeable. Serial # does not match the gun they are on, but they are definitely factory original stocks.

I think comparing N frame stocks to M frame stocks is not really a fair comparison. The much larger N frame stocks have a lot more real estate to work with than the tiny M frame stocks. IMO, it would be a lot easier to make a mistake on escutcheon placement on an M frame panel than on an N frame panel.

At any rate, the subject makes for interesting discussion.

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