Okay, so I take a lot of valuable information on this forum. In an effort to pay back a little bit of that, I thought I would start a thread showing off the different rear of slide treatments.
I'm hoping that this will create a thread that will A: Help newcomers looking for ideas find a style they like, then at the same time, hopefully create some business for the pros.
I know that the pros are modest, but I'll be the first to say, the ones on this site are amazing. So I hope they come out to show their stuff.
Newbs and wannabes like me, please, post away.
If you can, or feel like it, you can also post the tools that you did it with and your method.
I'll get one started here.
Very simple, probably the easiest.
I used a 40 LPI checkering file from Grobert's.
Before I can do any checkering, I will blend the rear of the slide. It must be perfect though before I will start to checker. I don't know if blemishes will show or not, but I don't want to take the chance. I blend for several minutes with files and emery cloth, then I use my stones to make it nice and shiny.
(I wish I had taken a picture of it before checking to illustrate that, but I ran out of hands).
I start off with the slide chucked up in my vise, with a guide block on the bottom of the slide. I use the guide block to get started. Once you get the first couple lines started, it's all super easy from there. The way I do it is to keep my file with 25% cutting new lines, and the back 75% being guided from the previous lines. I haven't gotten too far off yet, but it can easily happen if you're not paying attention. It is an aquired feeling, but you shouldn't have too much chatter, and as you get deeper, it should feel smoother, because you're doing less cutting.
I use blue dry-erase markers to help my eyes see better. Above, you can see the results.
Please, critique and offer suggestions as you will... I am always willing to learn how I can do something better.
Who's next?
BTW: My goal, if you couldn't tell from the title is to completely hide the extractor. I haven't got it yet, but I hope to one day.
Here are a couple of slides that I have done:
I blend the frame to the slide, then fit the barrel. After that, I put the slide in the vise and begin the serrations by hand using a piece of flat metal as a guide. I serrate the extractor, ejector and of course the rear of the slide all the way down.
This is how I chalk it up in the vise for the first couple swipes. I only use this long enough to get a couple lines established, then I pull it out and turn the slide the 90 degrees in the vise. This way, I don't have to clamp the snot out of it to keep it from rocking back and
Anything flat seems to work well enough, but I'm sure a nice slick piece of steel would be better than a slat from a $50 chunk of Madrone burl.
This is a photo of the file itself. I have two of them, a 25 lpi and a 40 lpi (shown). 40 lpi seems to match up pretty close to most serrated sights... which Hiene's (sp?) are generally 40 lpi, and BoMar's are/were 50 lpi (iirc).
Looks good... did you do the sight too? It seems to be a pretty smooth transition.
I use to serrate all the way down to the bottom of the slide on the frame until a buddy who is MUCH more knowledgeable than I am showed me that it may not be that great of an idea because over time the slide/frame fit will become a bit loose, and they may not always line up.
Made sense to me.
That is really great. I'm just buying tools and reading as much as I can at this point. I've got a couple of questions.
1) When you replace the extractor, how hard is it to re-cut the rear of the extractor without messing up the existing serrations on the slide?
2) I read somewhere that someone makes a "lifetime extractor". Is there any truth to that?
3) What did you practice on when you were trying to develop your skill?
A few years back I was into "checkering madness" and was checkering everything I could get a file on. Magazine pads, grip safety humps, front sights, the bottom of the slide stop pad, and even tools and pocketknife scales. One night I pulled the firing pin stop out of a gun and checkered it at 40 lpi to match the rear of the slide. It turned out pretty neat. I'm sorry I don't have the ability to post a photo. When you look at the rear of the slide with the hammer back all you see is checkering. Maybe I could checker the rear of the firing pin too. Just kidding.
A little bit of a departure from serrating. This is from a few years back, and the gun is still in the white:
I've noticed that a lot of custom shops that off serrations and checkering generally send an extra extractor with the pistol when you buy it. The problem isn't so much cutting the new extractor, but rather that you have to refinish the whole thing if you take away all of your finish.
Can I play?
Me too!
I have always admired CT Brian's technique, hopefully he won't mind me posting this...
Considering that dang near every maker of 1911 slides and 1911 extractors makes their product with a different compound angle on the rear face, it's quite likely that you will wind up with a less than stellar fit between the two, unless a spare(s) is fit during the build.
It takes a good bit of planning and work to get two or more extractors all dressed down so they all have a perfect match with the adjacent area of the slide and are interchangeable with each other. Then you've got to do your treatment (whether it's matting, serrating, checkering, golfballing or whatever in a manner that keeps this interchangeability.
Every Nighthawk I have ever owned that had something done to the rear of the slide came with a spare extractor that was blended and treated at the same time as the primary one.
When you say "beating" are you swinging the file or hitting it with a mallet/hammer?
I found it easier to do by swinging the file and striking the slide with it. A pair of leather gloves will be mandatory after the first 3 minutes or so.
I agree with John, easiest to do it as he describes. Using a hammer to matte the slide, i found holding the file @1/2" off the surface and driving it into the slide works best. Setting the file on the slide, hitting it more gently and letting in it "bounce" helps to even out the matte look.