PERFECTION LIES IN SMALL THINGS
A small number of people in the World are blessed with the ability and drive to make things of functionality and beauty using their minds, hearts and hands. They have the necessary patience, focus and determination to figure it all out. While their creativity is paramount, they often employ man-made tools to help them achieve their goals. We all covet the things they make.
We manufacture a world-famous pocket pistol. You've seen it before. Below is a picture of a hot blued "Standard" model made from raw materials that was machined, finished and assembled by us for Belgium-based, small arms maker Fabrique Nationale Herstal ("FN"). We did this work in our 15,000 square foot facility located at 155 Carlton Road, Charlottesville, Virginia, during the 1980's. More than half a million of these semi-automatic pocket pistols were manufactured in Europe. We've made tens of thousands more here in North America. Those of you in the USA know this classic concealed carry pocket pistol as the "Baby Browning". The rest of the world affectionately refers to it as “ Le Bebe´ ".
The DNA of this celebrated pocket pistol made its first public appearance in the John Moses Browning designed semi-automatic "pocket" pistols of the early 1900's. Reflect for a moment on the 1905/1906 model below (top picture) and compare it with the 1931 model (bottom picture). See the similarities?
Fast forward to the late 1920's. A man by the name of Dieudonné Joseph Saive decided he could do better. Saive was the master of Fabrique Nationale's factory operations. He tinkered with Browning's semi-automatic pistol designs. And what emerged from his effort was the most celebrated limited blowback, semi-automatic pocket pistol the world has ever known: the 1931 Fabrique Nationale 6.35mm, 6+1 shot Baby. This masterpiece of firearms design has not changed since that time.
1931 was a year when some things of consequence were better made than ever before. The 1931 6.35mm, 6+1 shot Fabrique Nationale "Baby" pocket pistol was one of those "better made things". Back then FN's factory was located in Liege, Belgium. Liege was and remains an area of Belgium that is recognized as one of the world's premier small arms making centers. The Baby was manufactured in a large building utilizing hand drawn blueprints and leather belt-driven machinery. Skilled labor from the nearby town of Herstal was used in the manufacture and assembly of each pistol. Decades later, the Baby was manufactured by one of FN's subsidiaries: Manufacture D'armes de Bayonne (France). Precision is the only company engaged by FN outside of Europe to ever manufacture the 1931 6.35mm, 6+1 shot pocket pistol.
As a result of the efforts FN's North American agent (Mr. Jim Stone), the technical data package for the 1931 6.35mm, 6+1 shot "Baby" pocket pistol was transferred by FN to Precision Small Parts Ltd. of Aurora, Ontario, Canada ("PSP") sometime during 1984-1985. PSP was owned and operated by Joseph Magyar Sr. and his immediate family. Prior to starting PSP in 1954, Mr. Magyar was a key employee of the Browning Firearms Company. He was employed by Browning for more than 20 years. PSP was a robust company of about 500 skilled workers and "old school" European-trained engineers. The company operated in a modern 65,000 square foot facility equipped to process very small components made of various metals. It even heat treated these parts in-house. The Canadian facility was also equipped with a sub-basement dedicated to testing fully functional machine guns (which were made on site for FN). And all of the equipment throughout the facility was state-of-the-art.
Circa 1984-1985, FN issued an order to PSP for 40,000 of the "Standard" model Baby pistols. PSP's primary objective was to produce for FN the Baby at a level of quality that exceeded the most recent Belgium production.
To accomplish this goal, PSP utilized cutting edge engineering know how and computer numeric controlled machine tools. After machining, stamping, brazing, deburring, heat treating, sanding, polishing, bluing and hand fitting, skilled PSP workers assembled all components into exquisite pocket pistols.
The pistols were then function tested, cleaned and packaged for export to Belgium. PSP was uniquely qualified to perform this detailed work because it was then the "best-of-the-best" of fully integrated Swiss screw machine shops in all of North America. It's 1,000+ customers operated in the fields of nuclear engineering, aerospace, defense, medicine and small arms, just to name a few. And the fact that PSP had served as a major sub-contractor to FN on several of its tier-one weapons systems, among them the US Army M-240 machine gun, made it the natural choice to be the prime contractor for production of "Le Bebe" in North America.
Canadian firearms law being what it was during the 1980's, the first FN source inspection of the completed Baby pocket pistols took place in PSP's Charlottesville, Virginia, facility during December 1986.
The first batch of Babies was shipped to FN during April 1987. Back then (with rare exception), all of the Babies were exported to Belgium for re-shipment by FN to various re-sellers throughout the world. Because of the US Gun Control Act of 1968, no Baby ever came back to the USA. And this did not sit well with American firearms enthusiasts. By the late 1980's, PSP was also distributing the Pistol in limited quantities throughout the USA. It accomplished this feat by utilizing the services of a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, company by the name of KBI, Inc. Michael Kassnar started and ran KBI with an iron fist. Michael was best known because of his father - who was the first USA-based importer of Spanish made rifles, shot guns and small arms after the Spanish Civil War ended. Michael was also a brilliant firearms salesman. He later went on to serve as president of the American subsidiary of Israeli Military Industries. Below is a picture taken by the photographer acting on behalf of KBI of the two models available for purchase through KBI in the USA during the late 1980's - early 1990's: the hot blued GR4000 "Standard" and a limited production run of industrial chrome plated Babys.
Initially the nylon impregnated black polymer grip plates of the pistol that were sold in the USA sported blank ovals. Later they depicted the word "Kassnar". And even later yet they depicted the letters "PSA". All pistols which the company has ever made that were sold and exported to FN used "Browning" marked grip plates.
The frames and slides of these pistols were made using the "lost wax method of investment casting." This complex, ceramic-based slurry process was pioneered during the 16th century by Leonardo Da Vinci. However, since late 2009, the PSA-25 pocket pistol has been machined from 8620-steel alloy bar, 303-stainless steel bar and hand drop forged 7075 T652 aircraft aluminum forgings.
In 1995 PSP separated small arms manufacturing from its Swiss screw machining operations. It also ended its relationship with KBI. Thereafter it developed its own resale relationships with USA and international based distributors and dealers and began to exhibit at trade shows throughout the world. The Baby was re-christened. It became known thereafter as the "PSA-25". Since those days in Virginia, the company has manufactured this classic Art Deco pistol in federally licensed workshops under its ownership, control and direction in California, Colorado, Illinois and Nevada.
Above: Precision Small Arms Minden, Nevada, facility just east of Lake Tahoe in the Carson Valley.
Below: Baby frames machined in our New Lenox, Illinois, facility proudly displayed by a skilled Precision colleague.
Some folks who know a thing or two about limited blow-back, semi-automatic pistols claim that the 6.35mm (.25 caliber), 6+1 shot pocket pistol manufactured by Precision Small Arms is the pre-eminent example of an elegantly designed, well machined, finely finished, exceptionally accurate firearm. And we agree with them. So proud are we of our work that some years ago we secured and maintain to this day a federal configuration patent on the Baby's classic good looks. We also hold a trademark for the use of the word "Baby" and the 3 letters "PSA" when used on newly manufactured, commercially traded, semi-automatic pistols distributed in the USA.
As with anything well made, the process is the product. Get the process right and you end up with a well-made product. Sounds simple, right? It isn't. In keeping with the original mandate from Fabrique Nationale, PSA continues to manufacture the Baby utilizing the very latest technology available. This includes the use of computer generated, 3-dimensional, interactive, detailed engineering drawings. These drawings give rise to thousands of lines of machine code. This "G code" is passed along to multi-axis, numeric controlled machine tools. The G code directs the machine to use specific cutting tools (more than 70 for the frame and slide alone) to make exact cuts in metal. We super-charge these machine tools with dimensional inspection probes that assure the accuracy of machined metal parts, regardless of cutting tool wear. These probes measure tool length and tool diameter wear. They also measure surface location in Cartesian point space (X-Y-Z).
Below are 2 pictures of steel cubes with five-sided fixturing for the Baby frame and slide. They are bolted to 4th axis rotary table indexers which are themselves attached to dedicated American made CNC vertical milling machines. Each of these machines weighs more than 15,000 pounds. Their weight provides the stability needed to machine metal to exacting tolerances of +/- 0.001 of an inch.
An extraordinary amount of time, money, engineering skill and effort over many years has gone into making things "right". The Baby is not a simple product to manufacture.
Above: a skilled set up engineer in our Nevada facility using a UK manufactured Renishaw Probe to "dial in" a fixture used to hold blanked components of the Baby on one of our vertical CNC milling machines.
Below: 303 stainless steel "bar stock" used to produce the frame and slide of a "Montreux" Series PSA-25 pistol (shown).
All of this activity and effort is at the heart of what we do to machine to near perfection metal parts for the PSA-25 pistol. Put simply: it comes down to having the requisite pre-conditions in place in order to achieve the desired results.
Note the precise fit between frame and slide in the picture below. As a result of such tight tolerances (0.002 of an inch - which is the typical thickness of a piece of paper) the PSA-25 pistol regularly generates tight groupings when shot utilizing a Weaver stance at 15-20 feet. And don't be misled: bullets discharged from the pistol perform exceptionally well in ballistic gel at this range.
After machining - and the specialized hand work of deburring, sanding, polishing and fitting - each of these beautifully crafted pocket pistols is assembled by a single craftsman from 30 unique parts. And then every one of them is function tested to make sure that it does what it is supposed to do. This continuous effort at quality control is all about building a near flawless firearm made from metal. Each must stand the test of time and regular use.
In keeping with the character of the original FN 1931 6.35mm Baby, each pistol carries a unique 6-digit serial number on the frame, slide and barrel. The 3-digit prefix "550" represents a 7075 T652 hand drop forged aluminum frame; the prefix "560" represents an 8620-steel alloy frame; a "570" prefix represents a 303-stainless steel frame.
In closing, consider the following: the DNA of the PSA-25 Baby .25 caliber pocket pistol is drawn from the early 1900's small pistol designs of America's most celebrated firearms designer - a man who went by the name of John Moses Browning. And it also reflects the genius of the man who ran Europe's largest small arms manufacturer from the 1920's into the 1930's - and his sense of Art Deco style - as manifested in cold, hard steel. This celebrated semi-automatic pocket pistol is a rare thing in the world today: a functional work of art in production for almost 100 years. The 1931 FN 6.35mm, 6+1 shot, limited blowback Baby Pocket Pistol was designed right the first time. And it continues to be built to original specifications under the PSA brand right here in the United States of America. The PSA-25 Baby will appeal to your sense of historical significance, quality and usefulness. It makes a unique contribution to any discriminating collection of firearms. And should the need ever arise, it will perform as intended.
NON-SINE-PERICULO