Over my years of collecting information on Sharps Model 1878 Borchardt Rifles, I have found, or have had sent to me, many interesting items. Yesterday courtesy of one of my regular correspondents I had the following auction advertisement sent to me. This concerns a side lever attachment for opening the action of this model rifle. See:- 
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From the photographs it will be seen how the side lever is fitted to the original Sharps under lever which is retained. This device was Patented by a Mr Salvatore J. Buzzini of New York. See:- (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links);
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The patent also showed an additional safety device fitted onto the Borchardt lever which worked through a slot in the trigger guard to activate the original Borchardt safety. Although the trigger guard is machined for this new safety, it is missing from this rifle.

The workmanship is somewhat wanting with the ends of the side lever being poorly fitted where they contact the original lever, overall the action has been buffed rounding the edges of the screw and pin holes. It is likely that this "conversion" was done in the late 1950's or early 1960's or later, given that the BSA Martini Cadets were not imported as 'surplus' arms until then and the rear sight that is fitted to this rifle would not have been available. All in all, not a very good idea as it is rather cumbersome and it may be possible to fit a side lever to a Borchardt a lot more neatly than Mr Buzzini did.
My thanks to my friend Farrell for the tip off on this conversion.

To say that this conversion is rare would, I think, be an understatement, as I had never even heard of it until yesterday,never mind Mr Buzzini whom I doubt ever made a cent out of his idea.
Harry

uscra112 wrote on Nov 11^th, 2015 at 4:50am:


Hello Phil,
I agree, I can't see any real advantage at all. Unless of course the shooter just has to have a side lever on his rifles. Over the years I have come across several very strange 'add on's' to Borchardt's. The human mind never ceases to amaze me, as to how much work it will do for so little, or no gain at all.
Harry

Hello Bob,
You missed it, as I gave it's ID in my first post. However, it is the rear sight off an English BSA Martini .310 Cadet Rifle, supplied to the  Australians as a training rifle in the early decades of the last century.
Harry

The original Borshardt lever lacks a proper grasping point unlike most other single shots.  That's an ugly accessory for sure.  If I owned the rifle would leave it as is. Small part of Borschardt history.

        Joe. 

Love that ball and spur lever for the Borchardt!

The advantage would be for backrest shooting and especially not accidentally setting the set trigger if so equipped. Since it is thought it may have been done in the 20th century, the mechanic probably didn't have that in mind