Let me Introduce Myself, Custom Colt 1903 Hammerless Armand Swenson Homage

[Matthew Allen]

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I am not a pistol smith nor have I had any formal training, but I dove in head first into this project and this is the result.

I had this 1903 hammerless for a while, it is a great shooter but all of its collector value had long vanished due to its lack of finish, dings, dents and surface rust.
As a collector of vintage custom 1911s from most of the pioneers in the sport, I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do and decided to take on a new impossible project, my first custom build that I would do entirely on my own. While I had dabbled around with an odd beavertail, sear or thumb safety here and there, I had never gone all out.
I wanted to build this gun in a way to honor Armand Swenson, as if he would have built a Colt 1903 back in the 1970s.

I had some inspiration by way of a Colt 1903 that Armand started and Wayne Novak finished back in the early 1980s.

Starting with the thumb safety seemed necessary since this was Armands most revered claim to fame. Ground down the original checkering to make the pad flat. I did cheat a little and scavenged the thumb pad from a Wilson Combat Swenson style 1911 safety. I had Jim French laser weld it in place and then I ground down the welds.

It was then on to checkering the front strap and grip safety. Because the material in these areas is super thin on a 1903 as compared to a 1911, I had to go with a 40lpi file in order to not blow through and make holes. All done by hand and by eye, it turned out pretty good. On par with the checkering you would find on a Swenson gun; a few wavy lines and irregularities, but this is what shows that its done by hand in my opinion.

While I was checkering the front strap, I also decided to do the recoil plug. On a 1903, they are just flat and the checkering really brought it to life.

It was then onto one of Armands most iconic features, the squared trigger guard. I dont have a welder so this is one part of the project that I had to farm out. A local friend helped me by filling in the gap with the TIG welder so that I could shape the trigger guard after. Not too bad if you ask me.

Once the trigger guard had its basic shape, I added rough checkering to the front of it. It will all get cleaned up when the checkering gets chased and blended later on.

At this point I started working in a deflection cut above the ejector, but as you will see later on, this area saw a considerable revision.

Now that my hairbrained ideas were starting to make it onto the gun, the project was really starting to come together. I thought long and hard about this next step. Because my metal working tools were quite limited, I only had a crude method for stippling the top of the slide. I had to start somewhere. I ended up using a blunt die and hammer, tapping the top of the slide with what felt like a million hard taps, until my fingers were numb. Over a two day period I kept working at it until I felt like the distribution of marks was sufficient.

After I was satisfied with the overall look, I sanded down the stippling with 400 grit and then 600 grit sandpaper to get an even height across the top of the slide. I then glass bead blasted it to soften any sharp edges that may still remain. I ended up with a smooth, but still irregular appearing stipple that will stand out beautifully once its transition gets finished off with a French border.

Now up to this point, everything has been done by hand, paid for in blood, sweat and blisters. It was time for the machine work. I don’t own a mill but have plenty of friends who do. I wanted to do everything on my own, so I asked for assistance and instruction, but wanted to do the final cuts myself.
The first cuts done were for the rear Smith & Wesson K-frame revolver sight. A very daunting and nervous task. It was my first time and there was very little room for error, but the results were very rewarding.

Next up was the French border to finish off the transition between the flat sides of the slide and the stippling on the top. It turned out quite well I think. I also managed to install my custom hand-made front ramp sight.

So far, the project is coming along, just as I had envisioned it. You can see in this pic that the deflection cut has grown considerably. Frame lines have been cleaned up, finger clam shells have been cut into the frame just behind the trigger and I have started to chase the checkering, getting everything ready for hard chrome.

The checkering isnt perfect and that was by design. I want it to look like it was done by hand. This isnt CNC work and back in the 70s, custom guns werent perfect. They were tools for competition and for the working man.

After returning from Ford’s Custom Gun Refinishing, I’d like to think this project came together just as I had planned. In the end, I think it came out better and I am over the moon with the results!

Matte hard chrome along with nitre blue on the small parts.

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