This must be show and tell time for when the Gods of Smith & Wesson smiled on one. Therefore here's a heart stopper: About 40+ years ago, at the first of the old Great Western Gun shows in Los Angeles, called the FAIR show then as it was held at the old Alantic & Pacific fairgrounds, I was called over to a table by a dealer who was told I had an interest in S&Ws. The man had a GI footlocker under his table that was full of S&W jigs, dies, test tools, screwdrivers,etc. for most models from the American up to the Model 1940 Light Rifles. These were sold as scrap metal to salvage dealers when S&W moved the factory from downtown Springfield out to the new plant, after WW2, where it is today. There were about 300 different items, each stamped with the model number and part for which they were used to gauge or test the part. The foot locker weighed about 250 lbs! I asked "How Much?" he said $10, I said OK if you load it into my truck, or $5 if I have to load it" He took the $5 offer and myself and two buddies put it on a cart and hauled it to the parking lot to my truck. So for some years, when ever I sold an older S&W, for an extra $20 you could have a set of jigs & tools used to build the gun! I finally sold the last batch of about 50 pieces to a fellow S&W collector in Maine who specialized in S&W jigs, etc. Ed.
