In 2015, we became the first and only shop to offer defarbing services on LeMat revolvers. Over the years that followed we defarbed close to 300 LeMat pistols to be near perfect replicas of the famous revolvers carried by the likes of JEB Stuart and Stonewall Jackson. All of these guns were re-worked in-house by the shop's owner, David Stavlo. David's attention to detail in reworking the LeMat revolver was second-to-none, as he even went as far as to recreate the original "*LM" proofmark found on originals guns; having a die made from an original LeMat proofmark which we were able to obtain. David's LeMat defarbing service was even featured in the Fall 2017 issue of Guns of the Old West magazine.
Sadly however, we are a small shop that offers a wide array of services. In order to keep up with the demands of other defarb work, combined with regular repair work, restorations and complete custom builds, we were forced to discontinue all pistol defarb services in 2020. As the demand for gunsmithing services increased, David just couldn't keep up.
While we are no longer able to offer defarbing services on customer-supplied revolvers, we have been able to obtain a few Griswold and Spiller & Burr revolvers to defarb and sell through our website. However, LeMat pistols have been extremely hard to come by; which is why we're very excited to offer this particular revolver: which is only the second LeMat to be defarbed by David since we stopped our revolver defarbing services more than three years ago.
David built this gun to be a true Confederate-owned LeMat. He began by carefully removing all the modern markings from the cylinder, frame and both barrels. He also removed the scroll engraving from the cylinder; which is correct for a Confederate-imported LeMat. He then stamped the serial number on the barrel, frame, and cylinder - the same locations as the originals, using dies that are a near perfect copy of the originals used by the LeMat factory. He also replicated the original */LM proof mark stamps on the barrel using a die that was copied from rubbings taken off an original LeMat.
The bluing was then stripped from the gun and a heavy aging process was applied to the whole pistol. This worn finish gives the gun the look of a 160 year old original while allowing the gun's bore, chambers and mechanism to remain in good condition. David also re-timed the action of this pistol to make it function reliably (most reproduction LeMats are very poorly timed).
The process was finished with the antiquing of the grips. David lightly sanded the checkering to simulate wear before the grips were stained dark and sealed with an oil finish.
The finished pistol is a near perfect copy of the original Confederate-imported LeMats. It's got the look of the originals but the bore of an reproduction. This is a great way to add a bit of "authenticity" to your pistol collection.
Don't wait on this one! As mentioned above, this is the ONLY way to obtain one of our defarbed LeMats. LeMat revolvers are becoming increasingly difficult to find as Pietta has suspended production due to supply-chain issues. At the time of this writing, none of the major online retailers are listing any LeMats in stock, with larger companies like Cabelas and Bass Pro eliminating them from their product line altogether.
