Press release from Cabot Guns:

The Crystal Gun is a work of glass art that just so happens to incorporate a Cabot 1911,” says Cabot Founder and CEO, Rob Bianchin of the fully functional pistol.  The project is the manifestation of an almost year-long collaboration between Cabot Guns and Pittsburgh-based glass artist Brian Engel.

Brian took a sculptor’s approach to create the Crystal Gun’s glass grips and trigger, starting with a solid block of glass and slowly removing material. He selected optically clear crystal glass for its hardness and clarity, and sliced rectangular discs from the glass block. He carved the basic shapes of the gun grips and trigger using diamond-embedded brass wheels, then sanded and smoothed each piece into its final shape and size.

The grips’ design was inspired by the classic diamond patterns seen on rifle stocks and gun grips. Brian carved the interior of each grip to highlight the material’s refractive qualities while keeping a smooth exterior. The trigger’s design was sandblasted into the glass. The grips and trigger were hand polished in several stages. The resulting grips and trigger have a crystal shine, yet withstand the forces of gun fire.

The frame, slide and small parts are crafted from a block of stainless steel and constructed to aerospace tolerances standards employing CNC Machining, EDM Wire, EDM Sinker, CNC Grinding technology, hand fit and hand polished to a mirror finish.

The pistol features Cabot’s signature mill engraved Trinity Strip cocking serrations, a rhombus checkered front strap and main spring housing, top slide serrations and a reverse dovetail front sight embedded with a diamond.  The pistol is a fully functional firearm.

Perhaps even more impressive than the Crystal Gun is the one-of-a-kind lead crystal gun case made to house the firearm.  Mr. Engel forged the gun case from blue lead crystal which features a french fit recessed cavity to cradle the gun and a glass lid that reads, “In Case Of Emergency, Break Glass.”

The case and pistol will be on display at SHOT. Mr Engel will be on-site and available for interviews during the show to discuss the project.

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48 COMMENTS

    • Money confers neither refinement, nor good taste upon it’s possessor. (Which is cool and all, but still…)

      This piece is likely well north of $10K, and yet still has the stripper stars in the trigger. Apparently the ghost of ’70s Elvis has a job in design at Cabot. Can’t wait to see the ‘TCB’ edition, with lightning bolt grips carved from whale baculum, and recycled steel pipe from Chernobyl making up the frame.

        • True dat.

          I’ve come to see Cabots as Ferraris from the 70s – objectively not very good, some kinda pretty, grossly over-priced. Maybe high-end mechanical watches are even more closely related – ornate, expensive as hell, only those ‘in the know’ will actually know, and some kid’s dollar store LCD watch is 50 times more accurate. Per week.

        • Watches I understand more than firearms. A fine watch has a lot of very serious detailed work that goes into making sure it actually works. It’s also a form of man-bling.

          Guns on the other hand are a tool that’s meant to be used and abused. I never understand the people who get mad about a ding on their AR or other gun. Brah, it’s a beauty mark that shows you actually use the damn thing.

          These high-end fashion guns make as much sense to me as putting a bunch of jewels on a Makita hammer drill and asking $40K for it. But…. that’s just me. I’ve never understood the people who prefer form over function. To each their own, kissing cows and all that.

        • Agreed there is far more craftsmanship in a $100K watch, than in a $100K shottie. If it’s some rare collectible safe queen, in NIB condition, I get it. But yeah guys worried about scratching up their AR, or Glock are kinda funny to me as well. Tools are tools. Maintaining them is one thing, but I give not a good flyin’ about a ding in wrenches, or my pistols, let alone my wartime battle rifles. .

      • I could even admire the stripper stars for being cut into a crystal trigger! Tell you what; I’ll give ya $2500!

    • Beat me to the punch, haha. I don’t understand why TTAG continuously keeps us posted with Cabot honestly.. it’s as if they were a sponsor. (ponder)

      • Maybe its because they make good and unique guns. Instead of always reporting on the standard stuff it is cool to see some of these unique super expensive every now and then. None of us may have plans to buy it but that doesn’t mean as gun people we can’t appreciate them.

        • I think most people’s problem isn’t with them covering high end guns it’s with what seem to some to basically be plugs for Cabot. Take a gander at some of the other comments in this thread.

        • Cabot guns may or may not be excellent firearms – I’ll never know firsthand unless TTAG offers one as a contest prize and I somehow win.

          That said, most of them sure are purty. I do like purty. As for plugging Cabot (no pun) or sponsorship, so what? Any business needs sponsors, so I don’t car if RF is getting paid for this post or not. On the other front, how many potential (wealthy) customers for Cabot guns do you really suppose make their decision after perusing TTAG?

          Now when Cabot sends one to RF for a full review, including range time and accuracy test, then things will be interesting.

      • Or Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), aka sapphire. Pull out your smartphone and look at the “glass” over the camera lens. Chances are it’s a sapphire. Almost as hard as diamond, but very rigid and brittle, so not a good choice for a frame or slide, even if you could grow a sapphire that large.

        • Maybe over the camera lens, but almost never over the screen (unless I missed something). I remebered Apple had a dev deal with a company in AZ to do a sapphire screen for the iPhony, but it ran into teething problems and the plug was pulled.

          I would have said a watch face would be a better example, then I remembered that half the folks under 30 don’t know what it is, let alone how to read non-digital time.

        • The camera lenses on iPhones (and the higher-end Androids) have been sapphire for some time now.

          The project that went sideways was trying to make sapphire crystals large enough to use on a watch face.

        • rosignol, The one that went sideways was for a phone face, mid-scale-and-up watch faces have been synthetic sapphire for about a century.

    • After my everyday carry need is met, anything I buy after that is BECAUSE I CAN.
      Same thinking applies here.

        • Ha!
          It doesn’t rank at all! Oh, don’t get me wrong; I appreciate a pretty gun like I appreciate pix or vids of impossibly hot women, nice to look at, but I’ll never have one.
          As for the ACTUAL wish list?
          1. Ruger Single-Six Three Screw model. A buddy is selling it to me – hopefully soon.
          2. Remington R51. Damn, that’s a purty piece…
          3. Henry Big Boy in .44 mag, because if you have to ask – you’ve never seen one.
          4. Skeet shooting lessons. It’s not a “thing”, per se – but I suck with shotguns and I need to work on that…

          • Good practical list, I like it. I use my stuff hard, don’t need or want beauty queens & don’t need a high maintenance beauty queen wife. My wife looks nice & knows how to do everything; my friends hot wife knows nothing.

        • Forget sucking with shotties, the reason for skeet shooting lessons is that it’s so much fun you’ll be grinning for a week. Try it with a pump!

  6. Eh, I find this alot cooler than the cartel underling special they were shilling yesterday. I’ll bet an OOB would be interesting though.

  8. Really need to see some video from the manufacturing as the write-up leaves much to imagination.

    Incredible that such a thing can be made nonetheless.

  13. The crystal gun, is being filled
    A thousand FMJs, a thousand JHPs
    A million bucks to spend on this swag
    When the slide locks back, I’ll drop the mag

  14. Who buys thos shit? Really, I honestly would like to know. Most people who have the kind of money to drop in something ridiculous like this aren’t gun people. Now, maybe I could see Cabot making a Gold Trump 1911 for Trump to carry around as president, but really, where’s the market for this shit?

    • Oh, HELL yes! Put all these together! How about Trump OCs a gold plated Cabot with glass grips and trigger in a BBQ holster for the next 4 years! Can you make diamond sights? Can this guy cut the presidential seal in those grips?

  16. Collectors will love this.. me too! If all y’all hate it, I’ll take it off your hands. For free!

    This oddball 1911 reminds me that MIT just discovered a new material that’s ten times stronger than steel and is way lighter. It’s a sort of 3-D graphene. The implications for the gun world are interesting.. instead of a glass artsy gun, imagine an AR made out of this stuff. I wonder if you could make a stout barrel out of this exotic new material?

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