ltwguns.com

I've been pretty scarce over the last few weeks, spending tons of hours doing all the many things you get into going full time as a custom 'smith. Now that things are starting to fall in line a little, I thought I'd post some pics of a little Kimber that turned out to be a pretty cool little carry piece.
The base is a Kimber Stainless Compact that went through all the reliability tuning, getting new Wilson Bulletproof extractor & EGW firing pin stop. The sights are Heinie's with the front wearing a gold dot and the rear being recut to give a little more grab for one handed clearance drills. It got a Carry Bevel package and lower bevels on the slide to make it more friendly in the mitts & around clothing. The factory barrel was cut flush with the slide & deep crowned. To improve ergonomics, it now sports a Wilson beavertail that I've reshaped a bit and narrowed some. I made a custom thumb safety that feels really nice in the hand. To give good grip, the front strap & main spring housing were scalloped, after the lower rear corner of the grip was aggressively rounded.

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The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

John, That is one cool carry gun. I like the thumb safety the best. That is very unique. Fine, fine work sir........

John,

Nicely done and congrats on making the change to enjoy this full-time.

Best,

Ray

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http://www.harmscustomdesigns.com

John,

Good luck with things, and do you have a picture of the safety in the "off" position.


Keith

Nice work John. I really like to see the lower slide bevel. Ever since I first saw one done it quickly became one of my favorites.

Glad you are a full timer now. I expect that means there will be more guns built which of course will result in more pictures posted. Right?

best "Heinie" mod ive seen, nice.

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www.mattlamey.com

That is one of the best executed 1911 pistols I've ever seen. I'll bet it's a great shooter! How did you make the front sight and the thumb safety?

I hate to rub it in, but the little piece shoots great too !

There are some other really nice features that John delvered. It runs with any ammo I have stuffed in it with eyesocket accuracy at 15 yards.

The ergonomic touches help in controlling recoil-the thumb safety for example allows me to get more of my left "support" hand high on the gripframe without interference from the safety. It really helps control the little guy. John actually made that safety pad fom scratch. He may have cussed a few times in doing so, but it turned out great.

The gun has a neat recoil system using an ISMI Glock flat wire spring (22#) that alleviates many of the issues seen with 4" slide guns like excessive slide velocity and recoil springs that have a typically limited shelf life. You can also disasseble this beast without any tools, unlike most "Compact" length guns that use a full length rod.

I love it. John is easy to work with and a real pro. He did everything I asked and more. Highly recommended.

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John, that is a great looking pistol. All the work comes together nicely to create a nice package. Keep up the great work!

Scott

OOOOHHH ! (green with envy).

When can I send mine in for similar treatment?

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An armed society is a polite society--Robert Heinlein

Beautiful gun John and Anthony. The most unique thing is the glock recoil spring. Congratulations Anthony.

i registered with this forum just so I could say "WOW" to this pistol. Love the bobbed spur hammer, slide bevel, solid trigger, the flush cut barrel...I could go on but instead I'll just say that that is the epitome of the perfect 1911 carry pistol...jeez I sound like a giddy schoolgirl at a Justin Timberlake concert...

Ricky T, The ISMI Glock spring is the ticket.
The standard Kimber compact recoil sping has a shelf life of under 500 rds in my experience.
The ISMI flat wire spring is rated for 35,000!
It has really reinvigorated my interest in "compact" 1911's.

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"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"-Italian proverb

CHECK OUT MY CUSTOM 1911 BLOG
http://thearsenalofdemocracy.blogspot.com

Roger that dude, I had the same issue when I had a K-Compact.

John does fantastic work. That looks like a great carry set up.

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Now thats a great looking carry piece!!! I look forward to working with John in the future

Sweet set up John! I dig the deep recessed crown. Kinda exaggerates the size of the hole in the barrel.

Will

That is just one awsome setup.

It's hard to add to the above posters comments. Very Nice work (and photos).
I can't wait for my turn on John's list.

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If You're Not the Lead Dog, The View Never Changes.

John,
Another great looking pistol. I am patiently, yeah right! waiting to see my pistol show up on the pages so I know I will have it back in hand shortly. My wife is being driven crazy!

Johnny, great job on another fine carry piece. I always admire a smith with the guts to bust out the torch and say, "well, they don't make one, so I'm gonna make my own...." in the tradition of the first generations master smiths.

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Stan Chen Customs
http://www.chencustoms.com

John
Glad to see you are doing this full time now.
Looks like my name will pop up a little quicker on that list now.
Even though I am not a fan of Kimbers that is really a nice looking carry gun!

Figures, it would take one of the LTW smiths to get me to appreciate a Kimber....

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Kentucky Colonel, Tennessee Squire & Combat Leprechaun
"You won't rise to the occasion - you'll default to your level of training." Barrett Tillman

Gents,

Unless it's a trademark secret, would you please elaborate on the Glock ISMI recoil system set-up? I carry Kimber Compact as well, and I have come across with generic spring issues.

Thanks.

I am also very intersted in the ISMI spring set up. If it isn't Top Secret.

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My client introduced me to the concept. It's not exactly a drop-in, kitchen table project. He said that he and a friend had both done it and were happy with the result. He had someone local to him turn down a solid FLGR to .250" diameter & cut it off at the length of a USGI Gov't Model guide. He is using an ISMI 22# G-19 spring with the original Kimber reverse plug. I faced off the rear face of the guide to Commander spec and beveled it to keep it from getting against the lower barrel lugs. Hopefully, Anthony will chime in and correct anything that I'm cloudy on.

I would caution anyone trying this to test for spring bind and correct for it if needed, before firing the pistol.

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The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

I'm not usually a big fan of the bull barrel but that flush treatment of the barrel looks very nice!

My bud Anthony talked/conned me into trying the ISMI flat wire idea on my Garthwaite custom Kimber Compact.

I LOVE carrying/shooting the 4" slide-officer's grip compact 1911, but I was going crazy with the recoil springs.....as soon as I got a spring clipped and "proven" reliable, it was worn out and dead. I have a great Kimber stainless compact worked over by Garthwaite, but I was about to give up on the gun because of the recoil springs. Anthony told me about ISMI's flat wire springs and guide rods for Kimber Compacts, and kept goading me into giving them a try. The springs work GREAT, but the skinny guide rod left something to be desired.......really a pain to take down. I got a local gun plumber to turn down some solid GI guide rods, and we played with different lenghts. A guide rode cut to Cammander lenght allowed for too much spring bind. It turned out that the 5" Gv't lenght worked well with the 4 " slide and a plug with a hole in the end. You get the durability of the flat wire spring, with the ease of take down of a GI plug set up.

I've got about 1000 rounds of ball through my Custom Kimber Compact with the 20 lb flat wire spring in it, and it feels like the day I installed the spring. Anyone with much 4" slide 1911 experience knows that a round wire spring would be DEAD at this point and would be experiencing malfunctions.

My Bud Anthony took this experince and had Mr Harrison install it into a great new custom pistol.

John, I'll be contacting you soon for a pistol for myself....what you did for Anthony turned out fantastic.

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Best Regards,

Will Fennell
http://www.willfennell.com

Thanks for the explanation, gents.

This sounds very intriguing. I get about 700 rounds out of conventional spring on my Compact that was built by Ned. Longer spring life would be great.

Does the guide rod have to be turned down to 0.250" in diameter, or it's not that necessary?

Again, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

the hole in the spring is only .250". The thicker spring is one reason this works so well.

The first flat wire gunspring I ever saw was made by Jim Boland in the 1980's and effectively lasted forever in a 5" 1911.

When I saw that ISMI had resurrected the concept for 1911's I started doing some legwork along with my pal Will. We found some solid GI length rods and tried them in 5" guns. The GI length rods work great in the Commander length and Compact length guns too-you just need to use an open plug for a full length rod in those lengths.

_________________
"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"-Italian proverb

CHECK OUT MY CUSTOM 1911 BLOG
http://thearsenalofdemocracy.blogspot.com