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Awesome example of a first time effort, it looks great. Was it all done by hand or did you do some machine work? Building your own is great isn't it? I love to do it almost as much as shooting them. Your son definitely has a great heirloom coming his way. At first I was going to build one for myself, then I figured when I die I want to leave one to each kid, which meant four but turned into five. So after deciding what five to build I totally fell in love with doing the work and now I plan on many more.

Is that a Heinie magwell? Do you do the handcut 40 lpi? If so that's quite an undertaking for a first effort. Kudos to you on a nice project.

Really nice. I love traditional 1911s.

Jess

Josh - Aside from a Foredom, everything was done by me, by hand. I spent plenty of time (100+) hours hunched over the bench staring through an Optivisor and filing away. The 40 LPI checkering wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but I can see the advantage of getting a mill set up to do it on that.

Jess, Thank you sir. Your work inspires me.

nice work Dave, i'm sure your son would be very proud to inherit a classic that was build by his Dad. i also inherited an old colt but it need a major make up, but it was resurrected by my freind Boy Tolentino.

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docbob

Yeah, I know what you mean about hunched over the bench for long hours. I have heard smiths give an estimate that a full house takes 40 hours or so. The ones I have built have taken me closer to the 80 hour mark or so. My time to work on them is spread out over such a long time that it is hard to figure all of the time up.

Way to go Dave! I like it. Is that a Heinie magwell?

WOW! Doing those sight cuts by hand! I wouldn't even think of trying that! Great work!

If you do decide to go "pro" I can only encourage you to keep going. I have only been at this officially since about late Feb. or March of this year and I can tell you it will be trying, a lot of hard work, not much profit and a lot of long hours keeping up with the work, record keeping, book keeping and "red tape". The FFL will take about 3-6 months to get and one of the easier parts of it all. You send them the money, then they send someone out to talk with you and look over where you plan to do business, finalize the paper work and about 2 weeks later, your "paper" shows up. And it will be one of the most fun, rewarding, and special things that you have ever done. You will put as much blood, sweat, and hard work into each pistol you touch as if it werre yours. If you don't feel some regret and seperation anxiety every time you pack one to send it back (I believe it was Chuck Rodgers that expressed it very well on his web site) then you should take it out of the box and figure out what you left undone. .

I still consider myself a "jive rookie" compared to most of the fine smiths here on LTW, but if there is anything that I can offer in the way of advise or pointers, please feel very welcome to ask via email, phone or PM. I would love to pass on anything I can that others have helped me with over the last months. Keep at it, you show that you have the "right stuff" and I look forward to all of the projects that you will share with us here.

Jess

Well to me it looks like one hell of a nice build. How bout some specs in it?

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Hard work pays off

I think that would be an incredible job even if it weren't a first time effort.
I tried my hand at installing Heinies with only a vise and a couple of files once...ONCE...so I can appreciate what you did.
Making it to pass down is one noble thing also, and your son should be very proud someday.

Each one of my son's has a 1911 that I built to their specs. Different than night and day. One is very modern and one is very GI. Both will never be sold and passed down. It is a very cool and noble thing to do as a project. I guess I missed that bit.

Jess

great job dave, inspiring dedication, thats a fact.-cameron

Gentlemen,
Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. First I have to clear up a misunderstanding... The sight cuts were put on by Caspian before they shipped me the slide. All I did was open them up a bit. For the record, I have hand-filed sight cuts into scrap iron around the shop, and had good results, but what a needlessly painstaking process!

Scot requested a quick spec sheet, so here is what I can remember at 1 am....

Kart barrel, flush cut and recrowned 11 degrees
EGW bushing
EGW ignition parts w/ Heinie Ultralight trigger
Heinie Straight Eight Sights
Heinie magwell
Wilson Beavertail
C & S Thumb safety
EB Slide stop, undercut pad and edge-beveled, shortened and hole chamfered
Kings Guide rod/buffer system
Handcheckered MSH and frontstrap, 40 LPI
Serrated rear of slide 40 LPI
Yost-Bonitz Carbon Fiber Grips, modified for the magwell
Slight dehorn over entire pistol

I will try to get some pictures up Sunday or Monday, as soon as I figure out my wife's camera. It's not a point and shoot digital mega-zoomy-pixel and it uses this stuff called FILM ??? Never heard of it... Should be interesting.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Good looking gun, congratulations.

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Heirloom Precision, LLC.
480-804-1911

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr

...

The BATFE finally gave me the green light today. My FFL is in-hand, and I am proud to announce that I can now accept customers.

If you have a specific "itch" that you want "scratched", give me a call or drop me a line. I look forward to (hopefully) building a clientele from our members and guests here.

Warmest regards,
Dave

Congrats and good luck!!!!!

Jim

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin , 1759