Customized Ed Brown

[scw2]

My first try at a picture so here goes.

Executive Elite to start. Then, John Harrison installed trigger (no further trigger work done over original Ed Brown 3.5 pound pull), 600 grit mirror polish, and IonBond. Novak installed the bar-dot X rear sight and supplied the Craig Spegel grips.

The gun has about 1,300 rounds through it. This is a wonderfully accurate, reliable shooter. It has been great fun to put this project together.

[sat]

Simple and fit for battle, nice piece.

[corvette4595]

Wow! Best looking finish I've ever seen.

[Houser]

Very nice.

I like what you have done to personalize it, and the polished flats and IonBond are truely unique.

Well done.

[karlglen101]

That's gorgeous. Don't just stop there with the pictures. Take some more shots!!

[corvette4595]

Is that EE stainless? I will absolutely get that same finish. Wow.

[Live2Ride]

That looks great! I really like those grips against that finish. The gun has a unique look, and I like it!

[scw2]

The gun started with Gen III over carbide steel. I went with Mr. John Harrison's 600 grit mirror finish to pop out the custom engraving, which is from Ed Brown.

The Brown custom engraving process is a joy to work with. His shop sent me beautiful proofs for approval and I was very pleased with his process and the result.

The secret of the finish is the prep work. Mr. Harrison had to work hard to take off the Gen III and then polish the flats. Had I to do it over again, I would have started with Brown blue as it would have been much, much easier on John.

The rounds are standard IonBond which in non-polished form has a grey matte finish. You can see the finish of the rounds best on the Ed Brown mag well.

The Harrison trigger is amazing and I liked it so much that I started using it on my other Ed Brown Government. It has a smooth trigger face like an old Smith and Wesson revolver.

I wanted to keep the gun simple to give it more of the look of a military weapon. All professionals involved in the process were great to work with.

Regards,

Craig

[osageshooter]

Wow! Stunning!

[FAAPOD]

Wow - that is a stunning pistol. Nicely done.

[Dean186]

Very nice, a one of a kind.

[scw2]

A Novak gunsmith advised me to get the bar dot rear sight. In the day time, you just see the front tritium dot inside a wide .145 inch black notch. At night, it is hard to get confused between the dot and the bar. I have since put these sights on two other pistols and am very happy with them. Please forgive the picture quality as it is hard for me to pick up both the front and rear sight in this set up.

And thanks for all the kind comments. This forum is a pleasure to be a small part of.

Regards,

Craig

[Bluesjam]

Looks great!

[E-ville]

i think im in love

[dts]

Awesome! That finish just screams elegance in style.

[US1911]

Originally Posted by scw2

The gun has about 1,300 rounds through it. This is a wonderfully accurate, reliable shooter. It has been great fun to put this project together.

I love it! Everything about it is special, you've got to be thrilled beyond expectation. One of the most beautiful pistols I've ever seen born from a Brown. It's so classic and traditional looking, yet the modern enhancements blend seamlessly. The personalized engraving with rank, name & ship gives the pistol an heirloom quality. Although I'd be tempted to swap the grip screws with slotted heads, it by no means detracts from the beauty; in fact, it's subtle enough to blend right in. Wow, what a pistol.

[38 Super Fan]

Love polished blue, love the EE too, very nice!

EDIT: Ionbond, sorry. Very cool.

[Turner0311]

I'm going to echo what has been said: that is a great looking pistol! Congratulations, you did very well!

[UnspokenVendetta]

I don't think I've ever seen IonBond that color. I'd love to have that replicated. Is it supposed to be black IonBond or do the have a grey IonBond?

[AlwaysLethal]

Nice looking pistol, love the polished Ionbond.

[scw2]

Harrison's web site has a good description of the properties of IonBond, one of which is that it gets darker with oil.

All the round surfaces of this pistol are normally matte grey, which is not too spectacular, but you sure do not need to worry about whether or not to get slide top serrations to cut down on reflected light, which I think is kind of cool.

Because I am a novice at picture taking and posting, I followed some directions on the forum. These directions included getting as much oil off the outside of the gun as possible, so the gun as shown is kind of dry with just a wipe from a silicon impregnated cloth.

Where I think the gun literally shines is the mirror finish on the flats, which I understand is quite laborious. To me, this part of the gun is almost a fine, dark blue that reflects lots of light. This effect is much prettier than any coating type finish that I have seen.

Every 1911 I own is a shooter, and the mirrored areas after a range session are a smudged up mess. The flats show finger smudges every time you do a safety check, but the spent powder and smudges wipe off very quickly. A good point is that I have not yet had a scratch on the mirrored slide flats due to the hardness of the IonBond.

For looks, blueing is great. I chose the mirrored IonBond after seeing one picture of Harrison's mirror IonBond finish work on the Louder Than Words forum. I live within walking distance of salt water in southern Florida so I wanted to stay from blueing.

IonBond is a surface treatment as opposed to a coating. It is hard to scratch, but if you do, the nick will show as bright steel. I have had good luck taking such nicks out with a cold blue pen on other carbide steel guns with coatings. This seems very difficult to do on this IonBond surface finish.

Like much of life, IonBond is kind of a compromise.

Regards,

Craig

[EB-SF]

Others have already said it but your pistol is a beautiful piece of art put together by a talented group of craftsmen. Thanks for sharing!

[kennethhardy]

Drooling

[tocohillsguy]

Sure is a looker. Would like to see the other side. With ionbond I believe you need to keep it oiled to avoid corrosion, but perhaps I'm mistaken. I know John Harrison used to have a great description of the finish (pros and cons) on his website. I believe some like to apply wax to it. I'm sure you'll enjoy the pistol and finding out how best to preserve its beauty.

[scw2]

tocohillsguy,

Great to hear from you!

The research I did on IonBond on the internet indicated that this finish was hard with some corrosion resistance. One report said that Ionbond was the equal of hard chrome in rust resistance. I had used Melonite before, but did not want to use it on this project because I liked the polished look of Harrison's work. But Melonite is very nice too.

The kids are home for spring break, so my time is limited for more pictures.

However, I will post pictures of a different kind of Ed Brown custom project, which I very excited about. after next week..

Regards,

Craig