I'm tempted to go into the safe and take some pics of some of my 'older' work.
Trouble is....although none of my work is perfect, it keeps gettin' better, and I'm a'scairt of being judged by work a few years old.
Well, once this digi-cam is returned from its loan, the process of 35mm prints to decent resolution scans on a 90mhz 'puter will dampen my desire.
It was the American Handgunner pictures of the early to mid-eighties, of the work of Steve Nastoff, Richard Heinie and Paul Liebenburg,
that drove me from a fairly rewarding trade to pistolsmithing.
In the intervening years, I have seen only a few guns, from craftsmen of varying abilities, that match the sheer cosmetic perfection of those guns of years ago.
I spent many an hour wondering how can Liebenburg fabricate and fit a grip safety so well.....or how can Heinie stop/border his checkering so perfectly?
Hey with all candor, I gotta wonder if those years were not the pinnacle of cosmetic attention.
Has Ichiro's photography become less air-brushed, or has the 'peak' slipped just so slightly?
AH no longer seems to be 'the source' of pics of 'the best'.
Why, I do not even care to speculate.
Forums such as this, and modern digital photography tell all.
Pics do not lie......unless digitally enhanched.
What's the rest of you think?
Chuck, I'm not sure how exactly to submit photos. I have a few that I keep for my website, etc., but I've only ever emailed them as an attachment. My website guy could probably tell me, I guess, but is there a simple way?? Maybe others are as ignorant as I am?
Chuck,
I am still at it. I spend as much if not more time now on cosmetic detail as I ever did. I hope you will be seeing another of my Pistols in Handgunner or Guns some time this year. I should have one coming up in Shooting Times, very shortly.
Handgunner has to put other Smiths Pistols in or people would quit buying the magazine. I think you would get tired of looking at 3 or 4 guys Pistols all the time.
I just had some new photos done of a Consecutive Numbered pair of Commanders I did. I am going to have it on my Web Site as
soon as we get time to do it.
Richard,
Some of us really like your work especially in the 10mm flavor. I have spent more than a few minutes tracking down the guns you have built over the years that your customers sell on the used market.
I think we need to have more not less Heinie pics and articles in American Handgunner.
Ok, someone invite Cameron Hopkins to the boards.
By the way, this is my first post here. Glad I found you guys. I was, until recently, blissfully unaware of the 1911forum problem. Looks like this will be a great site!
This is one of a pair of guns I built of late. The other will be a prize gun for the STI/American Handgunner. I've shot this one at plate matches and on pins. I know most of the forumites here are more into carry or IDPA type guns, but for those of you who compete in matches, please enjoy the photos.
Unfortunately, yes, that's the broken one Dane is going to fix. He's also fitting a Bar-Sto barrel, adding a solid Videcki trigger and giving it a reliability job. It also has a S&A beavertail that was added right before it crapped out on me.
This one and the shooter were hittin the top 25
of SOF last year.
Not a carry but its a shooter.
Got some old pics from a few years ago Ill post
a couple. JB
That is one of my favorites...Leibenberg was well known for his handmade beavertails and magwells. I think this was one of his economy guns, note lack of checkering.
But also note...grip safety and rear sight..hand made I believe..
Well the magazine's from 1988...I don't know the history but I've heard that some of the best smiths' would like to have this guys pieces...Do you know what made them so much different at the time? It IS a very different look from the ones I remember from that time period...even from today, but, we have so many "space guns" now that it's hard for me to place a lot of them...:wink:
BTW...This is one of his "Carry Comps" :wink:
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..!...then, we fight in the shade!..
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: gyp_c2 on 2001-05-30 01:57 ]</font>
The Pachmayr wraparound rubber stock and matching MSH, along with the checkering on the front of the trigger guard do harken back to that period when that was the 'cool setup'. Very clean metalwork.
gyp_c,
Would you please re-post that photo no larger than 600x400 (the allowable limit)? This photo is 800x700 and will cause those with smaller monitors to have to scroll back and forth to read the text... which is why we make this request of our members :wink: Thx!
My mistake...I'll edit and resubmit, I actually found a few others that weren't cut in half by the editor!
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