THE COMPLETE BOOK OF THE

MODEL 1911
THE CUSTOM EDITION

ED BROWN CENTENNIAL

WILSON COMBAT
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CENTENNIAL

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LES BAER CUSTOM
CENTENNIAL
 GARTHWAITE’S
PISTOLSMITHING
CLASS
Learning to build a custom 1911.
BY DAVID KENIK

R
eaders of this magazine usually have a love/hate relation-
ship with the 1911. The issue is that the 1911 is a finicky
design and has earned itself a reputation as a handgun
that may or may not run properly out of the box. When
my interest in 1911s started decades ago, I learned not to even
waste my time and ammunition test firing them because, chances
were, they wouldn’t work reliably. Instead, I took them from the
gun store counter to a gunsmith for a reliability package. Usually,
a trigger job and some component changes.
Tom Givens, owner of Range Master in Memphis, Tennessee,
its lead instructor and 1911 aficionado, recently proclaimed, “The
1911 design does not lend itself well to modern manufacturing
methods. Most over-the-counter 1911s still need some attention
from a qualified hand-fitter [pistolsmith].” That may be a bit
extreme, as manufacturing techniques have improved and most
contemporary 1911s work just fine. But there is a quantitative
benefit to hand-building a 1911.

The Mystery
It’s easy to build a reliable 1911. It’s easy to build an accurate
1911. However, it takes the skill and handwork of an experienced
artisan to obtain the ultimate accuracy out of the 1911 while
maintaining complete reliability. The proliferation and success of
high-end, high-cost, custom 1911s is a testament to that fact.
The exact process of accurizing and increasing reliability has al-
ways been shrouded in mystery to me. I understood the concepts,
but not the details. Perusing the Web site of custom gunsmith Jim
Garthwaite, I noticed that he offered a 1911 pistolsmithing class.
Having met Jim at several training events, I knew of his work and
jumped at the chance to attend.

Jim Garthwaite, Pistolsmith

Jim opened his shop in 1978 with a specialty in defensive Model
1911s and Browning Hi-Powers. He continues to be a one-man
show. Every facet of the work is done personally, and every gun
he works on is treated like his own. As a founding member of the
American Tactical Shooting Association, he is a practicing tacti-
cian and the lessons he learns perfecting the craft go into every one
of his guns. As a self-taught ’smith, he takes special pride in his
selection as the American Pistolsmith Guild 2004 Pistolsmith of
the Year.

78 BOOK OF THE 1911

GARTHWAITE’S PISTOLSMITHING CLASS

Jim Garthwaite limits the number of students in his class to six so that everyone gets personalized Students learn firsthand how custom pistolsmiths fit and blend parts such as a
attention. The project started with a 1911-A1 from Springfield Armory and included many new, over- beavertail grip safety and internal components such as the barrel lugs and barrel
size components that would have to be hand-fitted. Although the slide and frame already worked link. Although much of the work is done by hand, Garthwaite still uses machinery
together, more work was required to tighten the rail for better accuracy. for certain aspects of the build process.

Pistolsmithing Class
Jim’s class runs five days in his central
Pennsylvania shop and is billed as provid-
ing “a thorough knowledge and under-
standing of the procedures to build and
maintain the Browning-designed pistol.”
The tuition includes a forged 1911 frame
and slide, Kart or Bar-Sto match barrel,
Heinie or Novak fixed rear sights, all com-
ponent parts, cocobolo stocks, Teflon coat-
ing or bluing, and personal instruction.
Scheduled four times a year, the class
is limited to six participants so Jim can
offer plenty of personal attention. The
class I took started on February 14 of this
year, which, by coincidence, was the 100th
anniversary of John Browning’s patent for
the 1911 pistol.
The primary lessons of the class include
sight installation, frame-to-slide fitting,
precision barrel fitting, trigger work,
component shaping and malfunction
diagnosis. Participants thus learn to cus-
tom fit a 1911 and leave the class with the
satisfaction of hand-fitting and assembling
it themselves.
Springfield Armory Components
All Garthwaite pistols start life as a fully
assembled, bare-bones, basic Springfield
Armory pistol. Jim works with Springfield
Armory because of his opinion of the qual-
ity and consistency of its products.
Jim starts with complete guns since they
are no more expensive than purchasing the
parts separately. Besides the forged slide
and frame, firing pin, guide rod, magazine
catch, springs and pins, all factory compo-
nents are replaced with oversize parts that
are meticulously hand-fitted for perfect fit
and function, which affords Jim’s pistols
their superb accuracy and reliability. The
class was to follow the same path, with
each of us learning the hand-fitting process
of every part.
In Jim’s work he uses various materials,
depending on client requirements, but for
the class he prefers carbon steel frames and
slides, as he finds them easier for students
to fit and work by hand.
On the Bench
Prior to the start of instruction, Jim re-
moved the factory sights, milled dovetails
in the slide for the new sights and widened
and flared the ejection ports of each stu-
dent’s pistol. He also recontoured the rear
sights to allow the slide to be racked by the
front edge of the sight.
Day one started off with a hands-on
demonstration of a complete 1911 disas-
sembly and reassembly. We then moved
onto fitting a Heinie rear sight and MGW
blank dovetail front sight. The dovetails,
like all machining that was to be done,
were cut slightly undersize so we could
hand-file them for a perfect fit. We kept
filing and fitting until light no longer
filtered through between the parts.
Both sights need to be snug enough
that they don’t drift, yet loose enough to
be able to make windage adjustments.
The height of the front sight was pur-
posely left taller than needed so its height
could be adjusted during test firing to
match our carry ammunition preference.
I have to admit that I thought that sight
installation was one of the easier jobs for
a gunsmith, but it turns out to be much
more involved than I imagined. The price
a good gunsmith typically charges for the
service is certainly justifiable.
Job two was fitting the slide to the
frame. Since the gun started as a finished
pistol, the slide did fit onto the frame.
The process entailed measuring the
height of the rails in the slide, shimming
the rail slot in the frame to match the rail
height and planishing down the frame’s
rails with a hammer until the slide fit was
tight, even and without wiggle. Next we
filed off the misplaced steel and lapped
the slide and frame together with 600-
grit aluminum oxide compound. The pro-
cess was repeated several times until the
slide fit properly. When just a touch of
play was left, Jim stated that the minimal
residual movement would be removed
once the barrel was fit. Surprised again,
my slide was not that far off, and the
fitting process was much easier and faster
than I anticipated. However, that’s not
always the case. Sometimes the factory
slide fit is quite loose, and the tightening
process becomes lengthy.
In addition to the quality of the barrel
itself, one of the most important elements
of a pistol’s accuracy is the fit of the barrel
to the slide. Extraneous movement must
be eliminated so the barrel returns to bat-
tery consistently with every shot.
Starting with an oversize Kart match
barrel, the first step was to measure the
hood width and length and compare it
with the breech face to determine how
much material needed to be removed.
Rather than doing all the work manually,
whenever possible Jim prefers to do about
90 percent of the cutting by machine and
leave a few thousandths of an inch of mate-
rial for hand-fitting. This greatly speeds up
the workflow, yet leaves the final fitting to
be perfected by hand.
After the excess barrel hood material
was machined, the final portion was
hand-filed and -lapped. With the barrel
installed and held in battery, the barrel
lugs were then hand-cut. This was done
with both the slide and barrel positioned
on the frame. We used a lever to aid in
pushing the slide and barrel into the spe-
cial lug cutter as it was rotated by hand.
This ensured that the lugs were cut to the
correct position and enabled the thumb
safety to be engaged. Again, hand-filing
and -lapping finished and smoothed out
the operation. After fitting the barrel
link, the last process in the barrel instal-
lation was the sizing and fitting of the
barrel bushing. The barrel fitting was a
time-consuming process, but absolutely
necessary to assure accuracy.
With the barrel fitting completed, we
were able to assemble the barrel and recoil

80 BOOK OF THE 1911 gunsandammo.com gunsandammo.com BOOK OF THE 1911 81

GARTHWAITE’S PISTOLSMITHING CLASS
Building a custom 1911 in Garthwaite’s pistolsmithing class is more than how to make it aesthetically pleasing. He teaches how to make the
pistol function safely, reliably and accurately. Before the class is over, students take their 1911s to the range to fit the sights to a particular
load. A sight adjustment tool joins the class on the bench for any necessary windage adjustments.
spring within the slide and mate it to the
frame to check the function. This step was
encouraging, as we saw for the first time
that the barrel lowered and returned to
battery perfectly with the cycling of the
slide. It was also exciting to see that the fi-
nal fitting of the barrel tightened the slide
fit to the point that there was absolutely
no extraneous movement—a hallmark of a
well-built pistol.
Checking the head space with go/no-
go gauges, we determined that the cham-
ber in my barrel needed to be reamed to
fit the cartridge properly since we reduced
the barrel hood length. We increased the
chamber’s depth by hand-reaming it a
few thousandths of an inch deeper. To
82 BOOK OF THE 1911
ensure that we didn’t cut too deeply, we
reamed it in multiple steps until the bar-
rel locked perfectly with the go gauge in
the chamber.
Installing a Wilson Combat grip safety
was next on the list. The contour of the
grip safety that surrounds the hinge loca-
tion was smaller and shaped differently
than the frame, so we used a bolt-on jig as
a guide and removed most of the excess
frame material with a belt sander. The
frame and entire length of the grip safety
were then reshaped by hand-filing until
they melded together perfectly. Though
not necessary for reliability or accuracy, a
custom-fit grip safety gives the pistol a pro-
fessional presentation and greatly affects
10 Karat .080 Gold
Bead Custom Insert
As part of tuition, students
get the choice of finishing
their 1911 with a black oxide
or black Teflon coating. The
author chose black Teflon for
its low reflectivity and high lu-
bricity. The front sight features
a brass bead, and the rear
Heinie sight can be used for
one-handed slide manipula-
tion. Everything down to the
fitted Kart .45 National Match
barrel suggests that this was
built by the hands of a well-
trained 1911 pistolsmith.
how the firearm feels in the hand.
With all the hand-filing we did, I
received plenty of experience with a gun-
smith’s best friend, Dykem. This colored
liquid is applied along parts that need to
be fitted together. Quickly drying to a very
thin coating, the Dykem is removed where
the parts rub together, leaving a visual
indication of the exact location where
additional filing is required. Difficult-to-
fit parts such as the grip safety required
numerous applications.
After shaping and fitting the safety,
the fire-control parts were installed. We
started by cleaning out the frame’s trigger
bow slot and fitted an oversize trigger,
making sure it functioned with a magazine
gunsandammo.com gunsandammo.com BOOK OF THE 1911 83
GARTHWAITE’S PISTOLSMITHING CLASS
in place. Those that didn’t had their bows
adjusted. The hammer, sear and disconnec-
tor that we used are specially built for Jim
to his exacting specifications. In addition
to being used in his custom pistols, they
are also available through his Web site.
We first tested the sear engagement
to the hammer with the use of jigs that
mounted onto the frame for easy inspec-
tion of the parts. The jigs inserted into the
sear and hammer pin holes so they held
the parts outside the frames in the precise
relationship they will be in when installed.
As it turned out, the sears and hammers
needed almost no adjustment due to the
outstanding precision of the Electrical
Discharge Machining (EDM) used in
their manufacture. With the fire-control
system in place and the trigger breaking
clean at about four pounds, we adjusted
the trigger’s takeup and overtravel and
E
l Paso Saddlery (EPS) makes classic
holsters, cowboy rigs, concealment
holsters, duty holsters, military-style
and hunting holsters, and what caught my
eye: exotic-skinned holsters for stylish
carry. In addition to holsters, EPS offers
belts, magazine holders, scabbards, saddle
bags, pouches, slings and ammunition car-
riers. Each of these categories has numer-
ous incarnations to fit just about anyone’s
tactical, sport or practical desires. A few
clicks on the EPS Web site will take you
through a series of drop-down menus and
reveal a vast catalog of offerings.
Located in El Paso, Texas, El Paso Saddlery
was started in 1889. Not a misprint: 1889.
Today it employs the work of 16—the cut-
ting, stamping, carving and fitting are all
done by hand. All holsters and other products
are made to order. It can accommodate just
about every model handgun, and its work
typically takes about six to eight weeks.
For my custom 1911 project, I ordered a
holster, belt and magazine pouch done in the
Exotic Crosshairstyle in brown Spanish Bull.
Spanish Bull is also available in black. Other
exotic-hide offerings include black or brown
ostrich; black, cognac or chocolate crocodile;
black or chocolate shark; and stingray.
The Exotic Crosshair holsters are leather
lined, and both the front and back are cov-
ered with the customer’s choice of skin. A
user-adjustable tension screw combined
with hand-molding securely cradles the
gun. The holster is designed with a flat
back, which increases comfort for all-day
84 BOOK OF THE 1911
made the final functional adjustments to
the safeties.
The mainspring housing needed major
reshaping to meld the edges of the hous-
ing to the frame so it looks and feels like
a single part. Like the grip safety, the
housing is not responsible for increasing
accuracy or reliability, but it greatly affects
how the pistol feels in the hand and its
visual appeal.
To reduce the possibility of an ac-
cidental discharge of a live round hitting
the ejector and eliminate a common snag
point, the angle of the ejector was reshaped
and the overall length was shortened to
allow a cartridge to be ejected with plenty
of clearance past the barrel opening and
ejection port. Depending on the design,
the ejector was then reinstalled with a
pin or Loctite. Likewise, the extractor
was tuned to ensure that it located itself
CARRY IN STYLE
carry. The matching belt is a tapered, 1¼-
inch design and is also leather lined, as is
the magazine pouch.
I can’t say that I was surprised when I
first held the holster in my hand. I was ex-
pecting a gorgeous holster set, and that’s
exactly what I received. The skin is incred-
ible, the molding and stitching are equally
impressive, and the tension is perfect
right out of the box. Likewise the belt and
magazine carrier. One comment, however,
is that the carrier fit a bit looser on the
belt than I am accustomed to, but I did not
find it to be an issue with use.
properly within the frame and achieved
a positive lock on the case edge without
being overly tight.
With all the integral components
reshaped, fitted and installed, the frame’s
slide rails and the rear of the slide, along
with the extractor, were filed and reshaped
until they were flush fit.
The final part to be fitted was a set of
Craig Spegel cocobolo grip panels. We
confirmed that the screw holes were sized
and located correctly and did a small
amount of carving to the left panel to
clear the rotation of the safety. Once this
was completed, we were finally able to put
the fully assembled and fitted product in
our hand. I might be biased, but it was
the best-fitting 1911 I have ever held. The
difference between our handiwork and my
other 1911s was clearly the work we put
into melding and reshaping the grip safety
The belt, being what the public views,
handily belies its true purpose with its col-
orful, exotic skin; slender, tapered design;
and fancy, silver-toned buckle set. The belt
offers the support needed to comfortably
carry its charge, yet features an appear-
ance of the finest dress design.
All too often a product doesn’t come
close to matching its marketing, but I can
report that this is not the case with El Paso
Saddlery’s holsters. If you are looking to
carry in comfort and style, consider El Paso
Saddlery. For more information, visit ep-
saddlery.com or call 915-544-2233. —DK
and mainspring housing to the frame.
This was also our first opportunity to
test feeding reliability. Taking the pistols
outside where it was safe, we cycled,
without firing, FMJ and several types of
hollowpoint ammunition to test function.
Feeding was without failure. The pistol
was finally ready for live-fire testing.
With just an hour left of day four, we
finished with a hands-on demonstration of
checkering. The thought of doing such pre-
cise work by hand initially raised a concern,
but I found the process less complicated
than I had anticipated. Simply stated,
hand-checkering is done with special files
cut at the specific line spacing required for
it. For the front and rear straps, a 30-lpi file
is run back and forth along the grip along
a guide to keep it straight to cut approxi-
mately 10 30-lpi grooves simultaneously
in the frame in a single direction. The file
is moved over sideways to cut additional
grooves, and the process repeats until the
entire grip is cut. Grooves are then cut in
the perpendicular direction to form the
checkering. While Jim made it look simple,
this process is definitely an art and experi-
ence is the best teacher.
The morning of the last day of class was
the live-fire testing. We started on the
bench with a rest to check accuracy and
sight alignment with each participant’s
choice of carry ammunition. Jim brought
along a sight pusher, and we made wind-
age adjustments right there at the range.
During the fitting process, we purposely
left the front sight heights tall so we could
adjust them on the range. The process
was quite simple, with Jim setting a hand
gunsandammo.com
Few things are as rewarding as
carrying a capable defensive
pistol built by your own hands.
file onto the front sight and on a spacer
that sat atop the rear sight. The use of the
spacer formed a slight angle on the front
sight so the shooter only sees the front
edge of the sight and not the top. The filing
was done in several steps, with us stopping
to test fire with each increment until the
point of impact was exactly where we
wanted it. During the accuracy bench tests
I found that feeding was an issue with the
Cor-Bon DPX ammunition I carry due to
its very wide mouth. We tested the pistol
off the bench, and it fed flawlessly when
handholding. We made note to adjust the
barrel ramp slightly when we returned to
the shop.
The rest of the range time was primarily
devoted to function testing. We shot two-
handed and one-handed and purposely
shot limp-wristed in an attempt to foul the
gun’s function, but the pistols took all we
could dish out without hesitation.
Final cleanup of scratches and rough
edges was done back at the shop after the
range session. After that, all that was left
was surface blasting with aluminum oxide
to smooth the surfaces, application of
the finish, setting a gold bead in the front
sight and pinning the sight to the frame.
Jim completed these on his own after the
class due to time constraints. As part of
the tuition, we had a choice of black oxide
(bluing) or black Teflon coating, both of
which Jim does in-house. I chose black
Teflon because of its low reflectivity and
high lubricity, which reduces the need for
oil and helps keep the pistol running.
There were lots of steps that we per-
formed that I did not detail here. If I had,
this article would have turned into a book.
The attention to detail required to build a
pistol of this quality is astounding. Every
component, save for the firing pin and a
few springs, was modified, and in most
cases several functional modifications were
made to each part in addition to reshap-
ing. This class has instilled in me a tremen-
dous appreciation for the knowledge and
skills needed to hand-build a pistol of this
quality and forever deepened my respect
for John Browning’s design, which has
not just survived a century, but continues
to serve as a primary gun for our military,
police and the armed citizen.
Parting Thoughts
I would be remiss if I did not admit that
I was somewhat apprehensive about
spending a week behind a bench, but
Jim’s teaching and personal attention
made it easy and the hours flew by
quickly. Jim not only taught us what we
needed to do, but why it was necessary,
and he demonstrated how each part
worked and interacted with the rest of
the system. This information is not only
useful in building pistols, but for diag-
nosing malfunctions as well. If you own
a 1911, you will find this class invalu-
able in understanding the function and
operation of every component.
In addition to the knowledge and
experience gained, I am now the proud
owner of a well-built defensive pistol that
I painstakingly fit and assembled myself.
This will be remembered with each pull of
the trigger for years to come.
SOURCES
HEINIE SPECIALITY PRODUCTS
217-228-9500
heinie.com
KART PRECISION BARREL CORP.
910-754-5212
MGW PRECISION
706-793-1770
mgwltd.com
PISTOLSMITH
570-538-1566
garthwaite.com
SPRINGFIELD ARMORY
800-680-6866
springfieldarmory.com
WILSON COMBAT
800-955-4856
wilsoncombat.com
BOOK OF THE 1911 85