Standard Manufacturing submitted a sample of their 1911 Full Damascus, and while I have seen other manufacturers offer a Damascus slide, Standard is the first, to the best of my knowledge, to offer a complete gun including a pattern welded frame. Standard’s craftsmen hand forge their own billets of chain pattern Damascus before machining them into frame and slide components. Parts like the sights, slide stop, beavertail, mag release and thumb safety are machined from carbon steel, given a high polish and then nitre blued. Their brilliant color really stands out against the pewter-colored Damascus steel. So, too, do the reddish walnut grips. There’s an amazing amount of handwork that goes into each of these guns and they aren’t cheap. But I think it is safe to say each Standard 1911 Full Damascus comes with a set of bragging rights. My test sample was beautiful, accurate and had a very nice trigger!
KC: “Aesthetically this is not to my taste though I know others who would covet this gun. The Damascus work is very well done, though, and the nitre blue, again not to my taste, is well executed. For street use or even a class here at Gunsite, the thumb safety is too large, especially at its rear, and I’ll guarantee it will leave a blood blister within 100 rounds if this shooter uses a high thumb grip, which we teach here at Gunsite. The beavertail grip safety is well fit, and a trigger is good with just a little bit of creep but a crisp reset.”
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
LG: “The gun is vault-tight with no slide-to-frame slop. But it has a number of sharp edges. The thumb safety also needs to be modified or replaced; it is just too big for practical carry. Its sights have been polished so bright that it would be difficult to get a good sight picture in daylight. But they’re dovetailed and easy to replace. It is a really cool BBQ gun and there is nothing wrong with it that’s not a matter of replacing or modifying parts.”
