Here's a unique opportunity to own the first defarbed LeMat to be offered on the modern marketplace. This pistol started out as a new-in-box reproduction before our very own David Stavlo worked a little magic on it. Inspired by the excellent full color images in Valmore Forgette's book, LeMat: The Man, the Gun, David completely re-worked this pistol inside and out to look like a nicely preserved original Confederate-imported LeMat.
He started with the internal mechanism. Like most factory-new Lemats, this pistol worked very unreliably; with a hit-and-miss cylinder lock. David re-worked the internals so that the cylinder spins on half cock and locks up nice and tight on full cock each and every time.
He then turned his attention to the pistol's external appearance. David started by carefully removing all the modern markings from the cylinder, frame and both barrels. He continued by researching the serial number ranges of original Confederate LeMats and copied the serial number range of the original transitional model Parisian LeMats imported by the Confederacy in late 1862. He stamped the serial number in the same locations as those found on originals, using the same style font. He also replicated the original */LM proof mark stamps found on the originals and applied it to the barrel.
Unlike many of the patined guns we've offered in the past, David wanted to preserve a lot of the original bluing on this pistol to give it the look of a well cared-for original. He accomplished this by meticulously removing most of the bluing by hand; being sure to preserve the bluing in the protected areas. He then applied a rich patina over the whole revolver. He used a different process to patine the hammer and trigger, as these parts were originally case hardened and thus would have patined differently on the original guns.
David finished the project by sanding down much of the checkering on the grips; again using the photos of originals as a reference.
The finished pistol is a near perfect copy of the original Confederate imported guns. It's got the look of the originals but the bore of an unfired reproduction. This pistol would be a great addition to anyone's collection who isn't willing to pay the five figure price tag that comes with an original.
