Garthwaite Para P14-45

[CJ]

I've been wanting to try a 1911 double stack or a 2011 for a while now and I really wanted to go with an all steel frame but for the most part the price/quality range was either low end or high end with not much in between, it seems there is a decent selection under $1,000 and a decent selection from $3,500 and up. So when this popped up for sale I jumped on it immediately even though my gun fund was absolutely depleted and of course 30 minutes after transferring funds I started having some serious buyers remorse for spending money that I'd set aside for my new shop.

Well........now that it's here I have zero buyers remorse, this thing is fantastic, it's everything I could have hoped for and it fits my hand like a glove.

Enough rambling

 

[CJ]

I'm not sure when Jim built this but I'm fairly certain it's been sitting in someone's safe for a long time, when I got it home I immediately field stripped it and there were signs of old dried up lube and the shock buff that was installed was brittle and hard as a rock, it also show hardly any sign of being fired, my guess would be a few mags and that's it.
I did email Jim to see if he had a build sheet but he said they don't keep records on file but he did say he remembers this Para and it's only 1 of 2 he has ever built and in both cases they were a special request from a longtime customer.

The hand checkering is absolutely perfect.
I think Jim also made these grips, they definitely show sign of hand work