Make Mine Brass

I was surfing around and came to this post, at They Make All Kinds.  It talks about a small firearms manufacturer of the mid 1800s in St. Louis, but what caught my eye was the brass grip frame.

Brass, of course, is an old metal, one of the first worked by metalsmiths anywhere.  Basically an alloy of copper and zinc, it's been used since about the third millennia BCE, Nowadays, of course, it's an alloy of varying amounts of copper, zinc, and lead, depending on the articular characteristics needed.

The simple fact, though, is if I'm looking at a table full of handguns, and one or more have a brass grip frame, that is where my eye, my hand, and likely my pocketbook are going. Two of the three guns I use in CFDA have brass grip frames, and my long gun might one day get a brass grip frame, if time and money allow.

Uberti Cattleman Brass

There is just something about the warmth of the yellow, brass grip frame that draws my eye.  Couple the brass to a case-hardened receiver and it's a thing of beauty indeed!.  After thinking about it, brass is easy to machine, and should be easy to engrave.  After this competition season is finished, I may remove one of my grip frames and take it to a local shop to see if they'd be willing to embellish it a bit.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Regardless, if you're trying to sell me a revolver, make mine with a brass grip frame.  I'm a sucker for those things.