From the periodic table of elements:
Ti titanium
Cr chrome
Al aluminum
Fe iron
W tungsten (originally know as Wolfram)
And, yes, I just spent an hour trying unsuccessfully to make that all spell something clever that would apply to this gun
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This is a project that's been in the shop a long time. There were some aspects to it, that as I got started, I wished I hadn't agreed to. Well, honestly, a good many. I had already pretty much sworn off Ti frames. Other than being able to say "it's titanium", there's not much to gain. The stuff is not impossible to work with depending on what needs doing, but this particular one right off the bat would not accept any magazine. With Ti you don't just drop a file in there and even had it been softer aluminum, the entire mag chute is just not easily accessible for milling and filing. I took it over to the my pals' wire EDM shop one day and walked out with a re-sized chute that would take any mag.
I thought it had an odd combo of target / street / competition features, but I try not to impose my personal tastes on a customer too much..... anyway, this is a guy who has a lot of custom 1911's and knows what he wants, and some of the specs sounded kinda challenging, so..... I was convinced. This sky shot is a good starting place:
7818
The grip safety and mainspring housing are also titanium. Why the hell not at this point, I figured. They required some welding-up for a good fit. This took a good deal of time as one place I had used before for Ti had the parts for a while and then sent them back-- they had gotten out ofthe Ti welding game (they had done a great job for me in the past-- I was sorry to lose them). I went to another trusted source-- a guy who has done a fair amount of aerospace welding-- and he took care of it for me. One area I did not have welded was the radius where the grip safety meets the frame tangs. I didn't want to weld the frame and I was afraid to ask him to weld the concaves of the grip safety-- although I now think he could easily have done it. While he was at it I had him build of the front of the MSH so I could funnel the magwell out the back without creating a knife edge-- as I have been doing since 1991 or earlier (but never before in Ti). O'course, I haven't done one in steel in recent years since Stan Chen's MSH came out. I checkered the MSH at 25 LPI to match the factory checkering on the front.
7815
The magwell. Pretty easy for most of you to recognize the Caspian Race Ready format, I'm sure. Mags need to be modified slightly. There is a fair amount of machine work and handwork, getting this smooth and even all around. Finish on the frame and everything on it is Tungsten DLC, through Springer Precision. I was very satisfied with the service and results..... not quick and not cheap, but I'll trade quality and competence for quick and cheap any time.
7826
OK, there's no hiding it in this pic-- the slide is Damascus steel! The serrated slide rear is Gun-Koted and baked just to keep things black in the sight picture. The BoMar sight was dehorned and then Black DuraCoated by a friend, since I couldn't bake on Gun-Kote with that tritium insert in there. I swooped the grip safety bump a bit and high-gripped it.
7816
And, oh yeah, a compensator. The customer sent me a block of Damascus steel and I whittled this out of it. Shown with slide partly retracted so you can see the recoil spring plunger I made. The Commander-length slide was shortened a bit to keep overall length down; customer requested standard G-model length, which he got. But I hate a short recoil spring, so I made the comp and spring plug so the plug telescopes into the comp, allowing the use of standard G-model springs. Trying to keep things light so as to maximize the slight weight advantage gained with the Ti, I Skeletored the comp a little. Recoil spring plug is chromed, as are the hammer and barrel, by Chris at Metaloy.... great job Chris!
7828
Comp from the top. Grooves cut to match those that were already in the slide. Lots of work into this gun.....!
7820
The comp from the front. The holes are again, to get some weight out and for styling. They emulate my '90's bowling pin guns, where the front baffle was screwed in and had multiple holes for a custom spanner. The front face is polished so you can see the grain of the Damascus if you look closely.
7821
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