The Singer 1911 a Really Well Made, Special Gun
Singer, Rarer than Some Precious Stones?
Hey, guys, welcome to another walk-in Wednesday. Today, I have a rare opportunity for you to see some really, really rare guns. In fact, I want to get this done right away as soon as these guns came in the door. I want to get them back out the door because I'm scared to even have possession of them for even one day. These are two and a half singers, the 1911A1, which generally World War 2 variation versus 1911 from World War 1. But the singer is a very, very rare gun. Some of you are already very, very aware of that.
2 Singers = 1 Home
I have one, two, we'll talk more about these and a half, two and a half singers or as I said to Randy earlier, this is somebody's house right here. This is a house you're talking about two hundred thousand dollars. Get you a pretty nice home here in this area. So let's go over the singer. A little bit of background about it: they are very unique. I do not own these, and they are not being offered for sale.
Singer Gun History
A good friend of mine collector in the area, I knew he had two singers, and I said, hey, I'd love to do a video about the singer. Could you bring them in? And lo and behold, he had two and a half. I'll explain that. So the singer sewing machine before the war started in 1939 got a contract to makes five hundred, Singer 1911 colts. Now, why the singer? Good question. I'm not sure why, but the ordinance department came to Singer and said, how quickly could you tool up from your sewing machine equipment into making 1911 Colts?
Singer 1911 Made from a Sewing Machine Company?
And so it was an experiment. I assume they gave him money from the government to do a test. How long would it take for you to tool up and make five hundred guns? Why would they do that in nineteen thirty-nine? By the way, every singer. There's only five hundred made. Every singer was made before the war even started. A little conjecture would tell me that the government knew that we were going to go to war. And when we did everybody was going to have to revamp consumer-based product to military base product, why Singer?
Singer makes the best Sewing Machines so why not Guns?
Again, a little bit of conjecture as I read the history of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. They made the world's best sewing machines and did very well. They had factories in Europe. In fact, they had a factory in Scotland, and they had a factory in Germany. So in 1939, as you know, the war started in Europe, but not in the United States. So my thought is, first of all, Germany basically took over the factory and was making war equipment for the Nazis. And in Scotland, England was already at war with Germany. So Europe was at war, and the United States was not pulled into it yet. But they knew they were going to have to make equipment that would help defend freedom. And eventually, the United States, of course, got into the war. So before Pearl Harbor, five hundred singers were made. Why? As a test to see how quickly we could ramp up and put out five hundred of these.
Singer makes Precise Guns and Other War time Equipment
Why did they stop making them? The truth is, they were so well made. The singer had much more precision equipment than the other gun makers. And it was so precise, such good quality that they ended up saying, never mind about 1911. They had other companies make them. I'll go over that in a minute. But they decided to have them make bomb site equipment—artillery sites and also aviation equipment that went to Europe and the United States.
Wait now a Typewriting Company is making 1911s?
So let's talk about production. During World War Two, the largest producers of the 1911A1 were actually Remington Rand. Remington. Rand, you may know, is a typewriter company. So you have a typewriter company making 1911A1. Colt, actually, overall, colt made more 1911 than anybody. But during World War Two, they made about a half a million, whereas Remington Rand made about nine hundred thousand. And then Ithaca made about four hundred thousand.
What’s the Record Price for a Singer?
And then Union Switch and Signal. Many of you know that's also a very expensive gun. Union Switch and Signal made about fifty thousand. And the singer, the sewing machine company, made about 500. Precision made. Now, this gun probably is over a hundred thousand dollars. And the record price on a mint, one of these sold at auction a few years back over four hundred thousand dollars for a mint example, sold on auction record price. So what is this worth?Certainly over one hundred thousand dollars.
Singer: A Lunchpail Gun
The second singer I want to show you. It has no finish. No serial number. No markings other than the company logo. And then United States property. So this was found locally. And by the way, these were made in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which is not that far from us, is just a two-hour drive up the turnpike. So this kind of guns does show up once in a while where people worked in the factory.
There are two theories. One, they call it a lunch pail gun. Maybe you've heard of that before. Lunch pail gun is, you know, a term they use for employees, taking home parts and putting them together at home, basically stealing guns part by part by taking a mountain or lunch pail. This could be a lunch pail gun, but I suspect it was a gun that was made after the 500 were done. So they had overruns on the parts.
This to me, because there's some blue parts and some unfinished parts. This one was probably put together postproduction. By the way, they are in a specific zero range number S800001-S800500. They made five hundred. They have to be in that zero range. This has no serial number. Again, either a lunch pail gun or it was they had leftover slides and frames and other parts. So somebody put together a gun, and a factory worker probably took it home with permission or without somebody from the factory. Took this home with no serial number. I doubt that it was ever it issued.
Half a Singer
The half, this is a half a singer. These are parkerized, by the way, you can see that this the singers all had a blue finish. Remember about nineteen forty. So they were blue finish. Then, later on. Parkerized Finished. So somebody took a singer's slide. I suspect again a leftover slide put on to a colt frame. So it's a half a singer, first and foremost done by a singer without consulting who is somebody who knows what they're doing. Somebody smarter than me, by the way, because if I ever bought a singer, which not sure I ever would. But if I ever bought one, I know people that I could contact are known serial number. You know, there are known singers out there that have been authenticated.
Get Your Singer Checked Thoroughly!
And if one came out of the woodwork, I would want to get it checked out thoroughly by some experts. People generally will engrave the serial number or engrave the markings. We've had some come through here, not singers, but other guns where somebody wants to boost the value. So they maybe put it in a certain 0 range, or they change the markings to make it military issued. So you have to be really careful.
How to Know if it’s Actually a Singer?
The other factor is you look at the P, the P on the top of the slide on a colt. It is right side up on the singers, the slot the P is upside down. Also, the inspector proof is JKC. The singer is the only one; it was John K. Clements. They were the only ones that had that Inspector Mark. Of course, the singer marking and the test that I love the best. Remember, I said they made such a quality piece. The tolerances or the quality of the metalwork was so precise that you could feel the difference.
This would be, I'm going to hold it up to the mike. This would be a colt. Hopefully, you can. That's basically it shakes because the parts do not fit together quite exactly right. And it's okay; they function fine. I'm not criticizing the quality of the gun, but you can hear that versus nothing. The tolerances are so tight, and it works so smoothly, take the magazine out.
The Singer is such a Nice Gun
Like a well-oiled machine, just like a sewing machine. So the singer vs. the other manufactured guns. These are very rare. Be careful buying one. There's a lot of things you want to look at the serial range. The markings, the inspector proof, and the quality of the gun. Again, this is a really rare opportunity. I'm holding these for about one day and then quickly get them out of here because I don't want to be responsible for over two hundred thousand dollars worth of guns.
Just sitting right here. Two and a half singers in one place. You'll not see that again. I don't think—one more thing.
Send your Comments to Us
You know, I don't like a monologue. I love this to be interactive. So I would like to hear from you guys. What do you think is the most obscure U.S. company that made military equipment in WWII? So, don't say IBM, because I already said that when IBM made carbines, and there are other companies.
But when I think of singer sewing machine making military equipment, I think, wow, you know, what's the connection? So you guys write to me and tell me maybe I'll learn something new. I'd love to learn something new. What is the most obscure company that you can think of that ended up making military equipment that they just don't seem to fit together? Comment below. Write to us and then make sure you read the comments because we can all learn from each other.
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