.22 Hand Ejector Model M (Ladysmith) Third Model Checkered Stocks

[Masterpiece]

Smith & Wesson’s quality control would not allow for a set of grips that did not contain an escutcheon perfectly centered on the diamond and is proof that this set and the OPs cannot contain factory original checkering (or checking).

mrcvs,

Sorry to disagree, but that's a pretty hard statement to confirm without confirmation of a Factory Engineering Order or Notation stating so noted in Factory Documents!!

Especially so given over the past 50+ years I've observed first-hand possibly hundreds known "Guaranteed Factory Original" Checked Stocks that don't fit the description you're describing...Very rarely are many "Picture Perfect" given in that time period these were checked by Human Hands...Not by Machines!!

 

[Keith Brown]

Quality control wouldn’t allow for a diamond not perfectly centered, that’s just silly. When I go to a show and am looking at guns I generally look at the factory stocks before the gun. Factory stocks are commonly flawed. Way to much is made of the legendary quality control, these were a product made to be shipped and sold, a very high quality product no doubt but this often referenced image of guns and grips being hand built is just wrong IMO. They were manufactured in a very refined process but they were produced much like any other product. Sorry that’s a rant I suppose !

Also the scale of these Ladysmith grips is such that comparable work on them is at least several times more difficult than even J frame grips.

 

[mrcvs]

How many pairs of stocks do I need to prove my point?

Here’s three pair, all with the escutcheon centered on the diamond, with reasonable tolerances.

I’m fairly certain one would create the diamond around the escutcheon and checker outwards to the already scribed or checkered boundaries. Not the other way around, meaning diamond placement would be more random.

Here’s another three pair of stocks that prove my point, all three at once, then two close up photographs.

 

[Keith Brown]

Well if your hand checkering you establish two master lines and work from there and those are located with a template to approximate the finished diamond. The factory used a power tool that ran at a furious rate, overruns were very common. Your examples are nice and are approximately centered within reason as you say but finding another three that are not would not be to difficult. Just my observations, but I look at this stuff very very close, maybe to much.

 

[Keith Brown]

Back to the original set, the top cut when enlarged looks choppy and irregular, but again just an observation.

 

[Tom K]

Here’s three pair, all with the escutcheon centered on the diamond, with reasonable tolerances.

I’m fairly certain one would create the diamond around the escutcheon and checker outwards to the already scribed or checkered boundaries. Not the other way around, meaning diamond placement would be more random.

Here’s another three pair of stocks that prove my point, all three at once, then two close up photographs.

So I guess that this K-22 that I just noticed in the Forum Classifieds has a right stock panel that was not checkered by the factory?

But the left one was?

 

[mrcvs]

So I guess that this K-22 that I just noticed in the Forum Classifieds has a right stock panel that was not checkered by the factory?

But the left one was?

I don’t know, but I guess I am wrong then. The pre war N frame stocks I have, which are several, plus several Triple Lock revolvers, tend to be more consistent.