custom 1911

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Jeremiah10:23

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I was watching American Gun last night on TV and they made this "custom" 1911 for a guy. It was a rather plain (ordinary) gun with the exception of the engraving they did.

My question is what makes a gun like this worth the $3500 they agreed to pay? I can understand a premium price but to me that seemed crazy.
 
I would also suspect that even though it looked plain that the platform was made of top quality parts... a good top quality 1911 seems to be 1000-1500 in parts alone. And, as JTQ said the craftsmanship AND smith work add a lot to that.

And of course there is the TV factor. Everything is more expensive on TV...
 
I can understand a premium price but to me that seemed crazy.
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I think premium, when talking about the 1911 platform starts above $4k; crazy starts at 50% above that

I just got an e-mail from a 1911 smith, I'm on his waiting list, a little while back stating that most of his work was now in the $4-5k range. These are Art pieces, but working guns...nothing really fancy in the way of finishes or engraving...and his waiting list is over 5 years long
 
As it was being passed to the new owner, I heard it referred to as a Nighthawk.
 
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Everything is more expensive on TV
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True, but for a well made custom 1911, this isn't an unheard of price.

As a side note, I have been to Gunsmoke, and they sell Cabot Arms 1911's. They start at like $5500!!! They are milled to like a thousandth of an inch or something crazy though, so what you are paying for is extreme precision.

As a side note to the side note, the family was extremely friendly and spent time talking to whoever wanted to talk, so that was nice.
 
I'm in the process of customizing a heard of Colt 1911s. The parts using the existing frame/slide/barrel are around $8-900. It takes aprox. 3-4 hrs to place the frame in a jig on the mill, true the frontstrap and manually checker it 25-30lpi. To fit a beavertail grip safty well can take 2 hrs. To those that think this is slow remember one mistake and you have a paperweight. Another thing to remember is the range of tolerence that are on all machined goods. There are no "drop in" parts that fit right the first time.

The reason I am doing this. Just because I can. It will not improve my shooting much, too many miles on the frame. I know that my equipment will work as perfect as human skill can make it.

Could go on just don't want to belabor the point.

I also like engraved guns.

cheers,

ts
 
GyMac said:
As it was being passed to the new owner, I heard it referred to as a Nighthawk.
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The Heine from Nighthawk Custom is over $4k...of course it is the only way to get a Heine if you aren't already on his list, he reportedly has enough work to last him until he is 70
 
If you remember on that episode they showed them milling the slide on their own CNC machine. I remember from past episodes that they also mill their own frames. So besides the man hours, you also are paying for the investment into the CNC machine and top quality small parts and barrel.
 
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