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Thread: Jim Garthwaite Pictures Thread - Each post should contain at least one picture

  1. #1
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    Jim Garthwaite Pictures Thread - Each post should contain at least one picture

    John asked me start a Jim Garthwaite pistol picture thread, so here it is.

    This is a S&W 1911PD that Jim built for me a year ago. It is a duplicate of the one that he built for American Handgunner magazine as their 40th Anniversary give away pistol. It is obviously of Commander-length and has a Scandium frame. I particularly like the way Jim does the gold bead front sight and his dehorning. Other than the rear of the sight, there is not a sharp edge on the pistol. I have about 1000 rounds though it and it has been flawless in reliability and is very accurate. It is my primary carry 1911. Jim's turnaround time on a full build seems to be in the 8 to 12 month range. The grips are Esmeralda's. The grips are actually more red than they appear in the photos. I can't seem to get pictures of them that are true to their color.













    Last edited by scott53; 29th January 2008 at 18:57.


  2. #2
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    In June 2007, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit with Jim Garthwaite in his shop. He permitted me take photos of some of his personal 1911s.

    The first one is a hard chrome, Commander-size, .45 caliber pistol that he built quite a few years ago.





    The next one is his personal carry pistol. It has an aluminum Officers-length frame and Commander-length slide/barrel and is in .45 caliber.



    This one is Jim’s wife’s personal pistol. It has an aluminum Commander-size frame and Commander-length slide/barrel and is in 9mm with a 9x23 conversion unit.



    The last two pistols have gold bead front sights with Heinie Slant Pro rear sights that Jim modifies for one-handed slide cycling. Both feature a 30 lpi checkered front strap and main spring housing, and smooth Tru Ivory grips. Ken Hackathorn tells me that you must be over 50 years old to like ivory grips. I guess that he is right because when I was under 50 years old I thought that ivory grips looked terrible. Now that I am over 50 I like the look a lot!

    My wife and I liked these last two pistols so much that in early October we ordered a consecutive serial numbered pair built exactly like theirs. Jim buys aluminum frames from Springfield Armory that do not have the main spring housing pin hole drilled or the lower grip screw bushing holes drilled and tapped. This gives him the option of making them standard or Officers length. I will post photos of ours upon receipt.

  3. #3
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    Bladeandbarrel - I would love to see photos of your Garthwaite pistols.

    Joffe - You simply have a refined taste that took me (and Hackathorn) too many years to develop!

    OD - You are most welcome.

    What I like most about dealing with Jim is that he is a one-man shop who truly does everything himself. The only work that he sends out is hard chroming, Parkerizing, and insertion of tritium tubes. Everything else is done by Jim.

    The second thing that I like about Jim is that he offers no standard "packages." You spec what you want and he builds it. If you ask his advice, he will give you his opinion, but what you end up with is totally up to you, down to the last detail. His specialty is self-defense pistols and because of his long involvement in ATSC and the NTI he knows what works and I have found his advice most helpful.

    He will build a pistol with all of the bells and whistles like my S&W 1911PD, or will build a basic 1911 like my Jeff Cooper GSP Tribute Pistol that he finished for me late last year. This is a minimalist/retro pistol built along the lines of Cooper's circa 1986 GSP. The rear sight is s Yost-Bonitz Retro, the front sight is a gold bead, the main spring housing is a Guncrafter Industries, and the finish is mil-spec Parkerizing. I even asked him to stake rather than dovetail the front sight to keep with the retro look.








  4. #4
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    Garthwaite Black

    Like the rest of you, I think Jim is a fine gentleman and his work is phenomenal. He is a technician that builds pistols for carry and hard use, and an artist that has made a silk purse from a sow's ear for me. As stated, Jim will listen to and give you what you want. He also asks great questions and may, with logical reasoning, suggest that you change your thought process. An example of this is; serrations at the rear of the slide vs. checkering. When holstering you pistol if you use your thumb on the rear of the slide, sharp serrations can cause slippage and a cut while checkering is more secure and won't cut.

    The following pistol was beat when I took it to Jim. There weren't just scratches, there were a couple of gouges, the frame was bent and a previous owner obviously had a Dremel tool he couldn't use. Now you see what I got back. I think it's really hard to beat a guy with 30 years experience, an attitude of the "Buck stops here", I am proud of my work and enjoys hand checkering.





    On the next few pictures notice that Jim has hand checkered at 30lpi the Front strap and arched MSH to perfection.





    Jim is working on another one for me now. It is a 70 Series Combat Commander 9mm with a 9x23, 38 Super set up as well. I will post pictures when I get it.

    I hope you enjoyed looking.

  5. #5
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    In the late 1980s I had a local gunsmith build up an early S80 for a back up IPSC pistol. I was always disappointed in the fit of the bushing and rear sight. The rear sight was one of the original Heinie designs that gave a Bomar-type sight picture. Last year I sent the pistol to Jim Garthwaite and had him tighten the frame to slide fit, install a Kart match barrel and bushing, change the rear sight to a Heinie Slant Pro, install a gold bead front sight, serrate the top of the slide, checker the rear of the slide, and just generally go over it and make everything right. But I wanted to stay mostly with that late 1980s “look”. Jim of course provided exactly what I wanted. The below photos are the result. The second photo also includes my old IPSC-used Gordon Davis Taylor Omega holster and Bianchi double mag pouch with original Wilson mags from the 1980s.

    The second photo is of Jim’s 25 yard sighting in target. The upper left group is his first 3 shots, then he adjusted the sights and the group in the center is 5 shots. I can only wish that I could shoot like that!

    The third photo is a target that I shot in early March. It is 50 rounds of my SWC reloads fired at 10 yards going as fast as I could draw and get a flash sight picture. Even with me shooting, this is one accurate pistol. I would expect nothing less from a Jim Garthwaite built 1911.








  6. #6
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    The Garthwaite Zero

    I have been fotunate enough to know the owner of the very first, full-house offering by this master, as well as to handle it. I don't want to bore you, but suffice to say that the gun is beautiful and runs flawlessly. The owner, purchased a Gold Cup in 1973. "By 1975, all the cool guys were shooting Governments. I wanted a Government. Jim was just a kid who came to our matches and offered to work on our guns. I gave him my gun and told him what I wanted. It shoots great. Since I got it back from Jim (some thirty years ago), I've never had a stop, or malfunction of any kind."

    The build:

    Colt Gold Cup frame.

    Government slide; target sights fitted.

    NM bbl hard fitted and crowned.

    NM bushing fitted.

    Sear, disconnector replaced and fit.

    Hammer and trigger bow refinished.

    Slide to frame fit, refit.

    Front strap serrated.

    MSH hand checkered.

    Trigger set to a crisp, 4.5lb pull.





    Friends, you cannot begin to imagine what it's like to shoot a master's gun that has had this many thousand rounds through it and been racked as many times as this.

    It's simply an amazing piece.

    Thankfully, it's not a safe queen! To the owner, God bless him, "it's just a shooter."
    Guns kill people the same way spoons make you fat.

  7. #7
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    Roughly 3 months ago Jim finished, for me, a full house 70 Series Combat Commander in 9mm with an additional 9x23/38 Super barrel and FLGR. I believe the only parts not replaced were the slide and frame. Because this is one of those series of Combat Commanders where Colt lightend the slide rather than the frame, Jim could not flatten and serrate the top of the slide. Boy am I glad he couldn't because his suggestion of hand matting the rounded top with a french boarder to contrast the polished flat of the slide is to me; absolutely stunning. The rest of his work; The rest of his art work is as he known for, muesem quality. Even though I speak of Jim as an artist, he builds working guns not safe queens. His guns are meant to be carried and used.

    I now have over 1,000 rounds through the 9mm and 600 through the 9x23/38Super barrel. I have had 2 failures. Both were 38 Super from a very ,very old box of ammo that I picked up at a gun show and Jim told me up front that the ammo was garbage. The 9x23, since it is for carry is set to point of aim at 25 yards. At almost 1500 fps for a 125 grain ball it shoots very flat. The 9mm shoots about an inch low at 25 yards, but it's for practice. (I'm not sure which but either Elmer Keith or Jeff Cooper is creditied with the statement; "beware of the man with one gun"). The purpose of the piece is to be able to practice with what used to be much cheaper 9mm ammo and carry the 9x23. The fact that I can chamber both 9x23 and 38 Super in the same barrel is a bonus should 9x23 ammo become difficult to find. With Jim's perfect fitting both BarSto bull barrels are shooters.

    Those of you that know Jim and his work know why both the man and the pistolsmith is so highly regarded after 30 years of taking responsibility for his work. This is not my first gun done by Jim and it certainly won't be my last. I think the 9mm needs a twin.

    I hope you enjoy the following pictures but please understand they don't do Jim's work justice.










  8. #8
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    In early June, Jim Garthwaite and his wife were in town for a visit with my wife and me and for meetings on some joint projects we're involved with. He left six 1911s that he built with me to photograph (I'm an FFL holder so all is legal). Below are the first three.

    The first one is of a stainless steel SAInc. that was featured in the recent issue of G&A's "Complete Book of the Model 1911." My photograph does not do it justice. This may be the most beautiful 1911 that I have ever had the opportunity to handle.



    The second one is a recent build on a Briley frame.



    The third one is an OM/CM using Wilson frame, slide, and barrel. The frame is aluminium.


  9. #9
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    Part 2

    The next two pistols are a consecutive s/n pair built on Caspian titanium frames with Caspian slides and Bar Sto barrels. One is in .45 caliber and the other is in 9mm with Jim's 9x23 conversion unit.





    The last one was built using a Colt OM aluminium frame and Colt S80 stainless steel Commander slide with Bar Sto barrel. The finish is Boron 2400 Teflon. This is the slickest finish that I have ever felt. Of the six, this last one is my personal favorite. So much so that I am in the process of buying it off of Jim. I'm fairly thin and the OM/CM combination is much easier for me to conceal than a standard length frame. I'm hooked on this combination.



    I can not over emphasies the quality of Jim's workmanship. Ken Hackathorn calls Jim Garthwaite and John Harrison "the two best kept secrets in the 1911 gunsmithing world." I agree.
    Last edited by scott53; 28th June 2008 at 16:05.


  10. #10
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    My new Garthwaite Hi-Power (delivered last week) and spectacular leather from PCS.


    http://i29.tinypic.com/wurst1.jpg

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