I finally purchased a Smith Corona 1903A3 that I've been itching to own for years. I did a complete detail strip, and cleaned and inspected every part.
All of the parts are correct for Smith Corona except for the trigger guard/magazine and the magazine follower. I plan on replacing these with SC parts. The barrel is 1942 and looks brand new.
I'm a bit stumped by the stock. It is the correct stock type for SC, and all of the cartouches and inspection stamps look correct with the exception of the FJA stamp - which appears forged.
The stock had been sanded at some point and they did a really poor job, like with 60 grit paper or lower. You can see what I mean in the image with the 4 inspection stamps which I didn't sand over. Maybe someone sanded off a different inspection stamp and added the FJA to make it appear more correct?
Since it had already been sanded, I cleaned it with 0000 steel wool and mineral spirits mixed with tung oil. Then wet sanded it with tung oil up to 400 grit (I was careful to avoid the cartouches and inspection stamps), then applied 4 more coats of tung oil. The stock came out absolutely gorgeous and feels great. The FJA stamp bothers me, but its not worth the cost to me to replace the stock.
I'm waiting for a set of headspace gauges before I take it to the range. I'm really looking forward to shooting this bad boy.
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