In the market for a Walking Liberty expanded shell.

Lassen is only making various specific selected miscellaneous items in limited runs these days, so I guess that option is out. And Johnson seems to have shut down their magic business for the time being to make ventilators (a noble move).

Is there much — or any — difference in quality between the WL shells made by Schoolcraft ($90) and JB Magic/Mark Mason ($75)?

I have never owned a Schoolcraft but I have used my expanded WL shell (in tails) from Mark for several years. No complaints here.

Schoolcraft, Ron Davies, or even if you can find a dokkum or a Johnson. If you get into shell work a lot, I’d highly suggest investing in a deans set

I have Mark Mason's Walking Liberty shell from the pro line. My thoughts on the shell is that it's quite good for the price, especially when shipping was involved.

The shell maintains fairly good details even though expanded and has a surprisingly thick so it definitely sounds more "substantial" when a coin falls it.
Another thing I was quite happy about was the fit. The wasn't overly expanded to wobble when nested onto a coin. But has enough wiggle room to do standard de-shell techniques.
Also the shell is the same height as a real coin when side-by-side when not on a coin.

The only gripe is that unfortunately the coverage is definitely a bit lacking. At best I'd say 60%. And as a result of the coin being thicker, the shell sits higher on the coin when nested as well as having poorer coverage.

I've gotten used to it, but there have been moments where the shell tended to slide off unintended because of the edges being smaller. But another way to think about it is that de-shell techniques are incredibly fast and nimble.

In summary, I'm satisfied. My other choice at that time was Tango at a similar price but given the reviews and opinions I've heard over the years I decided not to go that route. Hope that helps.

I've got half dollar shells from Schoolcraft and from Todd Lassen...both are by far better than Tango, but between them, Lassen has a more accurate fit. You can notice this ´cause the "belling" (don't know how t call it in English) when shell is nested is by far loud on Schoolcraft, and also you can see some gaps on the underside of the assembled unit. This could be a minor issue for someone, but if you planned to use the coin as Geoff Latta did where he shows sometimes the coin from the bottom where shell is over the coin rather than by the good side)

Karnak,
I recently acquired a “Shell Shocked” set in WL and I like it a lot.
This allows nearly 100% coverage. I’ve used one of these sets in Morgans for a couple years. But I always thought smaller coin shells would look too “thick”.
I am pleasantly surprised. It works also with the WL Triception set (which comes with a a regular expanded WL Shell)
Also it works great with my Schoolcraft WL CSB for doing Carpenter’s Coins.

I previously owned a WL Schoolcraft Shell set and it had great fit, and about 80% coverage.

Happy searching!
Steph

Karnak,
I also have a Mason “Triception” in WL, which has a Standard expanded shell (shimmed).
Here are some Comparison pics to see the coverage and difference.

https://imgur.com/gallery/JEHaqw4

Thanks
Steph

Nice visual comparison. Thanks for taking the time of posting it.

I’ve got a Dean’s Set (Schoolcraft) in Walking Liberty. Love it. There are a few items that I don’t mind buying backups and this is one of them.

I’m a big fan of Lassen. But if I have to choose between Schoolcraft and JB Magic. I will definitely go with Schoolcraft. I do own a few gaffs made by Schoolcraft and own a set of walker from JB Magic.