Courtesy of Tactical Life
The name Ed Brown has been synonymous with quality 1911 pistols and parts for over 50 years. Ed started working on pistols and competing in the new ISPC game in the 1970s. This led to him opening Ed Brown Products with the goal of producing the world’s best parts and pistols. While his parts are widely respected and used, Ed’s personal story is largely unknown. Part of that is because Ed is a private person who believes in letting his products sell themselves.
Over the years, Ed grew the business into a highly successful enterprise. This was done with very little advertising or marketing strategies. To many gunsmiths, Ed Brown parts became the standard by which others were measured. Some of the best gunsmiths in the world used Ed’s parts because of their quality and consistency. The secret to this was that Ed’s employees were machinists and engineers. They understood specifications and taking a part from an engineer’s drawing to production. Attention to detail, maintaining tolerances and efficiency were in their DNA.
The “Ed Brown Way” is the roadmap for the company’s success. These parts are “engineered for performance.” Every component and part is manufactured to exacting tolerances that can only be attained through engineer using computer-automated processes. This allows Brown to “improve” on parts that originally had a weak area. In fact, the company has over $15 million invested in its CNC capabilities to ensure vertical integration. This ensures that the company is not dependent on outside vendors for any critical components. The frames and slides are machined from forgings on multiple five-axis CNC machines. The hammers, sears, disconnects and other internal parts are CNC-machined from bar stock. To quote Travis Brown, “Our conformance is verified on a coordinate measuring machine that is so sophisticated, approval was necessary from the Department of Defense before it could be purchased and installed.”
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