Cabot, Pennsylvania– August 2023– When we first unveiled the limited edition Zebra Damascus 1911 in 2018, we planned on producing 10 of these pistols per year. However, the supply chain disruptions of 2020 as well as the significant increase in demand for all of our pistols didn’t allow us to complete as many of these exquisite pieces as planned.
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The intricate nature of the pattern in the Damascus Steel slide made it more difficult to acquire, machine, and finish than we initially anticipated so currently fewer than 30 examples of the Zebra Damascus 1911 exist in collections worldwide.
Most people think that the zebra’s black and white stripes would be poor camouflage because these animals are often shown running across open country. However, among the thorny shrubs of the African bush the stripes make zebras hard to see. The zebras apparently also use their stripes for identification because the pattern changes from animal to animal. As with the zebra, no two of Cabot’s Zebra Damascus 1911s are identical. All the hand-made components reflect their individual origins and provide a dramatically different appearance for powerful precision handguns built to competition standards.
When making a Damascus billet, each technique and choice of raw materials gives a distinctive result. Usually craftsmen are satisfied to alternate two types of steel to make their Damascus. These layers are folded, reheated and reforged many times to make a product containing the hundreds of layers found in a typical Damascus blade. The danger in making Damascus is that heat alters the chemical and physical attributes of the product which can yield a disastrous result. The masters of making stainless Damascus steels must balance all of these factors to produce a product strong enough to make firearms.
An added layer of difficulty was taken on with the Zebra Damascus 1911. Two types of extremely fine quality stainless Damascus are used to produce striking materials forged into a piece of steel over an inch thick used to make the gun’s slide. The result is striking because sections of very fine cross-hatched Damascus are alternated with a much wider pattern to make a slide with contrasting layers presented at an inclined angle. The beauty of the steels is brought out by specialized etching techniques developed for this material.
At Cabot, this high-purity stainless Damascus is crafted to extremely close tolerances, using machining and electric discharge machines (EDM technology) that can cut parts to extremely close tolerances. When combined with hand-fitting and finishing techniques, what were once blocks of steel become unique, effective self-defense or competition handguns.
We are excited to announce that we have in-house enough steel to produce 10 Zebra Damascus 1911s in 2024 and we are now accepting orders for these pistols with an anticipated completion of Summer 2024. They will be serialized with the year and sequence number to ensure provenance, and the buyer will have their choice of certain options like grips, triggers and thumb safeties to suit each individual preference.
If you would like to secure one of the 2024 Zebra Damascus 1911s for your collection, you can visit our website using the link and place your order.
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