It arrived. It's kind of glorious and I love it.
First thing to note is that the S/N is actually 11704
Observations;
- Very very interesting mark on the top of the barrel, remnant of original patent?
- Built for a right hander, the grips have a slight right hand thumb rest which is remarkably well placed. Feels really good in the hand.
- More extensive sight work then expected. Rather nice sights in fact. You will notice that there is stippling at the rear there. At first I thought this was originally a target, but immediately realized it couldn't have been.
- Action is very very nice, both DA and SA.
- Grooved backstrap
- Grooved trigger
- Checkering added to the hammer to aid in single action shooting, works remarkably well to cock it as Frisbie notes in the article.
- Re-Crowned very well.
- The semi circles on the grips were event modified, not sure why exactly...
- The gun is refinished, and I don't think factory. It has an ever so slight plumb(?), almost iridescent quality to it. Plus the third lock stud is blue which it shouldn't be. It's kind of a fascinating re-finish, it's certainly the best non-factory one I have ever seen that is obviously non-factory. Normally a re-finish would bother me, but this one is all good.
- There was some active rust on the hammer/trigger, started clearing it up, will keep on it and look for other spots. Overall however its in better "as long neglected" shape then I expected.
- There is old, blued over pitting under the grips. The donor gun was certainly not pristine when it was "butchered" up.
A couple more pictures with slightly different light:
Overall I could scarcely be happier with it.