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Cutting dovetails for sights

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October 28, 2025, 05:43 PM
RNshooter
Cutting dovetails for sights
Hey all-

Who do we like for cutting dovetails in a 1911 slide? I have a milspec 1911-A1 slide with stake on sights that I would like to get Novak sights installed on.

Any good experiences to share?

Bruce





"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams

“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
October 28, 2025, 07:47 PM
sig operator
Maybe try Novak. They do machine front and rear dovetails.
No personal experience with them, but some range friends have had good results.
October 29, 2025, 06:55 AM
Chris Orndorff
I used Novak to cut a front dovetail on a 1911 slide and was very happy with the work, the price and the turn around time.


__________________


"Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician." -Jeff Cooper



October 29, 2025, 01:31 PM
mike28w
I sent my HiPower clone slide to Novak about 15 years ago. They cut dovetails and installed sights. The sights haven't moved since. They were quick and affordable ! I'd use them in a minute !!
October 29, 2025, 02:32 PM
RNshooter
Novak wants $125 to cut and install sights.
Sold!

Thanks, all.

Bruce





"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams

“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken