Anyone have one of these? I saw some of these online and like the looks.

How's their quality compare to other more well-known brands?

As I understand, the gentleman's name is Bob Serva and he used to own Dan Wesson. For a time he made those Fusion 1911s in Binghamton, NY. When the "safe act" came out, he moved to Florida. I almost bought one of his 1911s when he was in NY. I have no personal experience with them, but a former coworker had some work done to his 1911 by Mr Serva and couldn't stop raving about his work and service. He was very happy.

I had him build me a 10MM with a 357 Sig barrel in an all-stainless unit. We had a few issues with the gun and proper feeding but he resolved all of them in an expeditious manner. The pistol has gone on to be very reliable. I highly recommend him.

Their is a 1911 forum that has a Fusion section that you may want to check out.
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I'm loving this long slide! Thanks for posting the question about Fusion!

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Originally posted by ACP1:
I had him build me a 10MM with a 357 Sig barrel in an all-stainless unit. We had a few issues with the gun and proper feeding but he resolved all of them in an expeditious manner. The pistol has gone on to be very reliable. I highly recommend him.

Their is a 1911 forum that has a Fusion section that you may want to check out.
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Similarly, about 5-6 years ago I had them build me a Commander with three barrels - 10mm, .40S&W and .357 Sig.
The workmanship and finish are very good. I'm pretty happy with mine.

Fusion is roughly a half step up from Dan Wesson in the 1911 world. A bit more custom work and a bit higher quality on some of their models, but not quite to the quality level of the top tier full custom shops like Ed Brown/Wilson Combat/etc.

In a nutshell, there are basically four "Tiers" in the 1911 world.

1) Entry level foreign factory: These are your $500-$700ish Rock Island, Armscorp, Tisas, etc. Turkish and Philippine guns. Cheap cast parts and minimal finishing work.

2) Domestic factory: These are your full factory "assembly line" guns from larger domestic manufacturers like S&W, Sig, Colt, Kimber Springfield, etc. $700-$1000ish, with some fancier add-ons and a bit more attention paid to fit and finish than the cheaper foreign guns.

3) "Pro Shop"/Semi-custom: $1000-$2000ish. These are high quality production guns with a level of individual attention from gunsmiths. These include stuff like your Dan Wessons, Springfield Pro Shop, STI, S&W Performance Center, Colt Custom, etc. Higher quality and nicer fit and finish, for not much more than a Tier 2 "assembly line" gun in many cases.

4) Full Custom: $2000-$5000+. These are your totally customized, individually made, heavily worked-on 1911s, custom built from the frame up with lots of individual attention from master smiths. Places like SVI/Infinity, Les Baer, Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, etc.


Now, that's a bit over-simplified, with there being a range of quality even within each "tier", and some manufacturers fitting into two different tiers with various different models. But it's a good, basic overview.

Fusion falls roughly in Tier 3/lower Tier 4, depending on what you're ordering (Freedom semi-custom vs. Pro full custom, for example).

Had one friend with one. When he listed it for sale I inquired... and he told me I did not want it. When it sold, he was happy it was gone.

Another friend has one. Long story short: It has issues. He sold it and ended up buying it back because the new owner was so unhappy with it. (much more to that story, none of it in Fusions favor.)

I have the Fusion Reaction in 10mm. Fit and finish is excellent. Same goes for accuracy and reliability. Can't speak for them all but mine is excellent. I understand that they have quality customer service though I have not needed to make use of it. All around excellent gun.

I bought a set of adjustable sights made by Fusion Firearms. Fit and finish were so poor I wouldn't consider buying anything else from them at any price.

quote:

4) Full Custom: $2000-$5000+. These are your totally customized, individually made, heavily worked-on 1911s, custom built from the frame up with lots of individual attention from master smiths. Places like SVI/Infinity, Les Baer, Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, etc.

Except for SVI, those are not "full custom."
Full custom are SVI, Ted Yost, Jason Burton, Stan Chen, et al, who have long backlogs at $7000-$10000. On 1911Addicts, Jason Burton said a $9000 second hand Jeremy Reid was a great deal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

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4) Full Custom: $2000-$5000+. These are your totally customized, individually made, heavily worked-on 1911s, custom built from the frame up with lots of individual attention from master smiths. Places like SVI/Infinity, Les Baer, Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, etc.

I had always wondered about this category. My 1911's like Wilson Combats, Nighthawks, and Ed Browns have always been upgraded from the classic lines to my specs ie; custom engraving, 2-tones with particulars like Turnbull charcoal blue semi polished slide flats, or particular coating materials, different frt/rear strap treatments like chainlink over checkering, top/rear serrations, sights, barrel flush cut/crowned, etc with these companies from the factory...

So what do you call them, Custom Semi-Custom??

It's just personal preferences to order my specs with well known factory support over the years in case you need it. A full custom build are excellent build 1911's but as the original builder ages he may retire or go out of business and if you should need a future servicing you may be relegated to another well known builder. Not saying thats a good or bad thing but I did have this talk with George @Gunslingers when ordering a custom/semi-custom thru Nighthawk, Wilson, and Brown. YMMV

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
^^^^^^^^^^^^

quote:

4) Full Custom: $2000-$5000+. These are your totally customized, individually made, heavily worked-on 1911s, custom built from the frame up with lots of individual attention from master smiths. Places like SVI/Infinity, Les Baer, Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, etc.

I had always wondered about this category. My 1911's like Wilson Combats, Nighthawks, and Ed Browns have always been upgraded from the classic lines to my specs ie; custom engraving, 2-tones with particulars like Turnbull charcoal blue semi polished slide flats, or particular coating materials, different frt/rear strap treatments like chainlink over checkering, top/rear serrations, sights, barrel flush cut/crowned, etc with these companies from the factory...

That word..."custom"...

To me, custom means bespoke. Having something done or made specific for yourself that is not part of a gunmaker's "ordinary" inventory. More than just Bill Wilson assigning a single gunsmith to build a X-TAC Supergrade Compact. It would ideally be more than even picking and choosing from a SET list of options, though I suppose that could be bespoke, IF no one else happens to pick the exact same combination of options before Wilson Combat decides that's enough of that particular gun.

No, my idea of what's 'custom' is being able do something not in Wilson's standard catalog of tricks. Like changing the frame to a full dust cover and modifying the standard slide to accommodate. Or spec a scalloped serrated slide rather than the usual straight lined stuff, where the spacing of the scallops is different, slightly but evenly increasing in separation as the scallops head from back to the front. Or vice versa. And maybe overlay WC's logo over it. Or not. Use a scalloped crown to the barrel to evoke the unique curved serrations, rather than the 'mundane' (yawn) angled straight line crown for the "common" peasant rich. Or engraving a totally unique pattern of lines, script or squiggles...by hand and not to be etched by some laser from a set pattern previously stored on a hard drive someplace. That ultimately spell out "Lucinda", which you decided that should be the name of your new toy in honor of a long ago sweetheart. Maybe contouring the smoothed-faced trigger bow's lightening hole pattern to be your own initials rather than mere round holes or stars or stylized triangles. Machining a totally different hammer beyond the regular patterns. Case hardening the frame and then pairing it with a uniquely formed Damascus slide. Maybe even finger grooves (I can't believe I said that), specifically sized and spaced for your own hand. A unique curved cross-serration to both front strap and main spring housing. Maybe even a bit of gold or platinum (or both) inlay. And of course a serial number that means something to you (you know, maybe Lucinda's birthday).

This is the kind of stuff that I think of when the word 'custom' is used. Doesn't really matter the dollar amount, only that it's something close to a one-off if not truly and completely there (hey, someone else more than likely will have your same initials, perhaps a long lost love named Lucinda and at the same time share a love of case hardening. It could happen...). And that it's done by a shop or gunsmith renown for doing great, tasteful work (even when the client's own level of tastefulness is...um...somewhat artistically challenged). In other words: No Bubbas Allowed.

Monoblok, you bring up interesting points. I would also add that in one odd all instance with my Ed Brown CC, they would not do a specified custom option feature, it was a long time ago, may have been I wanted them to do top slide top serrations or something similar, maybe flush cut and contour slide stop notch, not rear slide serrations but anyways Browns shop refused to do the upgrade and said that it required addition machinery setup and they weren't going to do it for a one-off. So I sent it to Nighthawk Custom and they gladly took the business. I've always had great dealings with Nighthawk Customs and they build a great 1911.

Not surprisingly I saw sometime later than Browns shop now offered this option on their factory built Cobra Carry. I'm sure he would have preferred to keep his customers from jumping ship but he always had a steady stream of customers so it was his choice to say what goes and I respected that. I just didn't want to pistol going from one shop to another for convenience reasons.

Edited to add..With a Wilson Combat Supergrade the custom engraving was just a change from the classic to script feature on the Wilson Combat Supergrade as I wanted to just keep the slide flats as clean as possible. I was going to completely eliminate the Wilson Combat Supergrade all together but they told me there would be a charge to eliminate the lettering completely, so I changed it to script, it looked better.

Here's a snap of the change in Wilson lettering to script.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: just1tym,