Were guns always made to "model quality" standards?

[The Exile]

I was googling out of curiosity what America's army has issued it's soldiers after a couple of civil war things caught my interest today and I found that the earliest issued side arm was a colt dragoon. I'm almost certain that flintlocks were issued to officers at least if not also cavalrymen during the American revolution in pistol form. So that got me thinking about how recent the idea of a model of firearm is. Weapons from antiquity have been produced to generally similar shapes when they come from the same maker but before the invention of big industry the fact that everything must be handmade forces me to raise the question - Gunsmiting, art or science? Throughout firearms history have they been made to certain standards or were they merely the result of their makers daily whimsy?

 

[Deus Machina]

About the time weapons actually got issued is about the time they got built close to a standard pattern.
Even the Romans had a standard pattern for the spear and the gladius. It changed over time, but they made sure the stuff was pretty close.
Issued firearms have pretty much always been made to a pattern--I hesitate to say 'blueprint' because they still varied a bit--even before interchangeable parts.
That kept every soldier about as effective as any other, made issuing things like ram rods and powder horns or charges easier, and meant that repairs could be done more quickly by starting with a part closer to that on everything else, or at least one the gunsmith had made a hundred times that year.

 

[bannockburn]

The Exile

Not certain but I would venture to guess that the British Brown Bess musket (a.k.a. Land Pattern Musket 1722), was maybe the first standardized Pattern weapon. Definitely more gunsmithing science than art; efficiency and economy in terms of design and parts would be the prevailing factors over that of an individual gun makers derivation from the standard Pattern.

 

[Drail]

I believe that the Dragoon was probably the first sidearm issued to soldiers who were NOT officers. A sidearm was a symbol of rank. In the days of flintlocks enlisted men were not issued sidearms although they could probably carry personally owned sidearm if they owned one. Cavalry troops required a powerful sidearm because you cannot control a horse while using a rifle. Even today very few enlisted troops are issued a sidearm (and are definitely not permitted to carry a personally owned weapon). They have too way much gear to lug around anyway. Eli Whitney is usually credited with bringing us manufacturing "standards". Prior to that every weapon was pretty much handmade and parts were not even interchangeable. Parts were made oversized and filed and stoned to fit one gun precisely. (just like a match grade 1911). I have no idea what you mean by "model quality standards".

 

[The Exile]

Model quality standards meaning that you could pick up several different guns and say something like "oh that's a glock 19" or "oh that's a Single action army", when they were built to standards that could make every gun more or less identifiable.

 

[MikeJackmin]

>Model quality standards meaning that you could pick up several different guns and say something like "oh that's a glock 19" or "oh that's a Single action army", when they were built to standards that could make every gun more or less identifiable.

The Model 1811 Naval Pistol meets this standard; they are all essentially identical, all the same parts, and the parts all look alike, too. They usually won't interchange because of tiny tolerance differences but they were made as much the same as was materially possible at the time.

I think the M1811 was the US's first standardized military sidearm. I'd bet other nations got there first.