A couple of years before I retired I worked out of a station that was in the same building at a police unit. Separate facilities, but we shared a parking lot.

One evening my partner walked into the station and handed me one round of .45 ACP FMJ. Apparently some officer returning from a range trip had dropped the round and not noticed it.

I thanked my partner, but told him that I didn’t have any handguns in .45 ACP. “Well, I guess you’ll have to go out and buy one, won’t you?” was his reply.

I had no valid refutation to that, so I started thinking about it. I already had a small, but growing number of S&W Third Generation semi auto pistols in 9mm and was very comfortable with the design and Manual of Arms.

So, I started looking around both in stores and an on line forum that I spend too much time hanging around on .

About a week later another member posted a S&W 457 with little wear, complete with box and seven magazines for about $475.00. Considering what other similar handguns go for it seemed like a pretty good deal.

A trip was made, money was exchanged for the handgun, box, and magazines.

In due course I made a trip to the range and ran the gun through it’s paces. For $475.00 the 457 shot very well. On a subsequent trip to TX a couple of friends shot it and one offered to buy it. He’s a good friend, but I wasn’t about to part with this fine handgun.

A little history is in order. The 457 was introduced late into the life cycle of the Third Generation guns. The first Third Gens were introduced in 1988 and 1989 and over the next several years a dizzying selection of guns in 9mm, .40S&W, and .45ACP were introduced. So many that S&W introduced a model selection wheel for salesman to demonstrate the multitude of caliber and feature options that were available.

Here is a picture of one. There are a few in existence, but they are collector items. “Ephemera” is the term usually used.

I’ve never seen one in person and wouldn’t pay the exorbitant price that they bring when they show up.

Back to the guns. The regular Third Generation guns were well designed and beautifully built semi automatic pistols. Many police departments in the United States and other nations bought or specified them for their officers. New York City used several variations and only within the last few years were they removed from the authorized weapons list. Los Angeles still authorizes officers to carry them. The list is long and I won’t bore you with it.

Then, in the mid 1980s, something cataclysmic happened. An Austrian guy named Gaston Glock revolutionized the entire gun industry by introducing a pistol with a frame made of polymer, not any sort of metal alloy.

The advantage to the Glock was that it was a lot cheaper to manufacture.

The beautiful S&W semi autos used a frame forged out of steel or an aluminum alloy. One the castings were forged, they had to be hand machined in multiple steps on multiple machines. Each milling machine was set up to do one operation as this was before the advent of CNC machines.

The slide, barrel, and other parts were similar between Glock, S&W, Berretta, and other manufacturers, but the frame was the big cost differential.

S&W started to lose contracts to Glock because the largest customers, police agencies, were required to buy the lowest cost pistol that met all of their specifications. Glock was built to do just that at a cost below what S&W could offer.

As an answer, S&W came up with what they called the “Value Line” pistols. Ironically, the Value Line pistols used essentially the same frame as the standard line guns. There were a few fewer machining steps, some plastic parts instead of metal, but over all there wasn’t much difference.

Where S&W cut cost was somewhat ironically in the slide machining and finish. The slide is more blocky on the Value Line guns, the sights are cheaper, the finish on the black guns appears to have been applied with a Sharpie, and the ambidextrous safety/decocker lever was replaced by a left side only version.

It was of little avail and slowly the Third Generation guns were phased out of production. The standard line guns were removed from the commercial catalog around about 2006 and the Value Line guns were removed just a bit later. Police departments could still order both regular and Value Line guns as long as they could order in sufficient quantity.

All of that ended a few years ago and the remaining spare guns were sold to the civilian market where they commanded premium prices. That, however is a story not germane to today’s post.

Back to the 457. I’ve had a number of them over the years selling of one I had in order to buy a newer production gun. I even lucked into one of the relatively rare stainless steel versions. Same aluminum alloy frame, but the slide was made of Stainless Steel. The machining of the slide had the same blocky machining as the steel versions which makes them look, uh, chunky.

I decided that I wanted something just a bit different for my 457 so I enlisted the services of a gun smith I know who does custom slide work on Value Line guns in various calibers and configurations. After discussing the subject we came up with a plan.

If I could find a steel, not stainless steel, slide he would perform custom machining to make my Ugly Duckling a lovely Swan. After a few days of searching I found a suitable candidate on Ebay. Now, even though they are putatively anti gun, they will allow the sale of most gun components This slide was one of those and it was much cheaper than I expected to find one.

Off went the slide and associated parts for a make over.

I won’t go into cost details because the truth is I have more money into this than I ought to have spent. That said, I’m very happy with the result and in it’s way it is a work of art.

It’s also a practical pistol to carry for self defense and shoots quite well.

The work that was done includes stripping the frame down, thinning the sides by making “Scallop Cuts”, adding front serrations, sharpening the existing rear serrations, fitting a better rear sight with a “U” notch cut into it, and refinishing the slide, extractor, and safety/decocker in a rich black using a technique he found on line.

Here it is,

Even a chunky, low price, “Value Line” firearm can be turned into a beautiful work of art by a skilled gunsmith. Who is actually more of an artist in metal than anything else.