My Caspian 1911 Build (lots of pics)

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Here's a bunch of shots of my new Caspian Long Slide I finally finished after 3 months of nights/weekends. This was my first 1911 build from scratch, please let me know what you think. I copied many ideas I've seen on other builds.

I'm really pleased with the rear slide serrations, the beaver tail, high grip and trigger guard checkering. All are "firsts" for me, I know they are not perfect and others could do much better, but I like the idea I built this myself.

I'm torn between what finish I want - either Robar NP3 or Hard Chrome. I have another pistol out to Robar and I'm going to wait and see how that turns out. NP3 seems funny - I've seen lots of pics of pistols done in NP3 and they all look different shades. Seems it's hard to photograph.

Thanks for looking.

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Sweet Caspian.

Dude! Someone obliterated your serial number. [smile] Did you go for a custom one?

NICE looking pistola. I absolutely love Caspian pistols.
 
real nice looking piece! i'm trying to put a finish on my 1911 as well, and can't decide either...i heard that if you go np3, it'll be a while before you get it back...whatever you decide, take pics and let me see! i'm going to potentially steal your idea :)

also, how'd you do the serrations? i want to do them too, but am kind of scared of fuxing it up...
 
I should have another Pistol back from Robar begining of November, if it's done on time. I'll post how long it took and some pics.

I think the serations are really kind of easy once you have done a couple on scrap - to practice I serrated the handles of my RCBS Hand Primers [smile].

Get a good checkering file (see Brownells - $30.00 - $50.00 range) , the one I used there I believe was 40 lpi. Use the same side of the file for the whole job. Just mark it with something. The key is getting the first cuts to be straight. I ran a shim of plywood up along the side of the slide and put both in my table vice vertically. Keep the slide low in the vice otherwise you can get vibrations and make it cross tracks. The best thing is to just go for it on something else until you get the hang of it. Once I did that it was not that stressfull to do at all.

Only other advice I can think of is to start your first cuts in teh middle of the slide butt. You want your serrations to match on both sides, so I find it easier to start with those 2 sides being matched up.
 
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