Charles Henderson writes:
Martin Albright is a delightful gentleman, albeit a Green Beret spending the day with a couple of Marines. Karl Lippard and I both enjoyed his company and look forward to continuing to show him all that he wants to see and do with Lippard firearms. Lippard has a finished A2 pistol now available for Mr. Albright to fully test and evaluate over as long a period of time as he requires. Couple of points that need to be underscored regarding the Lippard A2 pistol . . .
No gun maker owns his own steel mill. With the one exception of Lippard, all other production guns of which I am aware subcontract the manufacture of their components today, this includes all the big names. To my knowledge, ALL of them Cast their major components and that is done mostly offshore in Brazil, Mexico, Russia or China. They only assemble the guns in the USA. In fact, check the headstamps on Remington or Winchester rifle receivers today, Made in Russia.
In contrast, Lippard guns machined from hammer-forged steel billits of S7 tool steel. And everything in the Lippard gun is Made in the USA, not simply assembled here. The steel alloy used in Lippard arms is not disclosed by Lippard, for obvious reasons, but can be available to other gun makers if they know which alloy to choose. Most other gun makers will not choose the alloy, however, because they do not have the technology or skills to work with this difficult and unforgiving steel. Lippard has developed this technology and owns it exclusively.
The steel fabricators who do the cutting and machining by CNC use computer driven systems, state-of-the-art, that are guided by Lippard’s exclusive CAD software input. The first frames and slides that were cut, by Lippard’s contractor in Florida were met with great reluctance and apprehension by that contractor. Embarking in this new territory scared them to death! They had never done such demanding cuts and designs before, down to zero tolerances, and feared the results would not be pleasant. This was a First for them, and they know of no one else in gun making who had ever done such work. They made history, breaking the new ground.
The results proved as Lippard had forecasted. Frames and slides interchanged beautifully. All parts were exact fits.
The next test was hardening. Would this exotic steel change shape as it was fired and cooled, going through the hardening processes as most other steels do? Certainly, all steel used by other gun makers today does warp and bend as it heats and cools, thus requiring a gunsmith to “fit” components (hours of filing, honing and pressing the parts to fit) in order to build a gun or to replace a major component on an existing gun. All except Lippard.
Karl Lippard is on video assembling the hardened Lippard A2 slides with frames at random. No gunsmith needed for fitting. They already fit perfectly, and at closer tolerances than is even possible by hand fitting. After hardening the Lippard A2 components did not warp or change shapes or tolerances whatsoever. Therefore, the Lippard guns are the world’s first Fully Interchangeable pistols. All parts and components are interchangeable with all other Lippard A2 pistols.
Furthermore, and this impressed me but did not receive mention in Martin Albright’s review, the Lippard A2 pistols operate without lubrication. You can shoot the new A2 pistol bone dry, no oil, no nothing on it, and it will not gall or seize or jam, but will operate just fine. No, Lippard does not recommend running any gun without lubrication. But the Lippard A2 pistol will shoot just fine with no lubrication in place.
This is possible because the steel tolerances are exact, and do not have uneven surfaces, and because the nature of the metal does not warp or change under heating and cooling, the gun can be fired without harm to the gun with zero lubricaton. Bone dry!
The two pistols that Martin Albright fired at the indoor range that day he spent with Karl Lippard and me had zero lubrication present in either gun. No oil, no grease not even spit to lubricate them. Yet they fired just fine.
Let me make this clear as to why Albright’s test was very limited and not even really a test. Both guns that he fired were still in production and being phase tested by Karl Lippard. In this testing, Lippard looks for problems so that he can make adjustments and identify parts not operating correctly, such as the trigger failure that he and Albright encountered. Thus, in such testing, you cannot expect finished gun performance either.
That is why Lippard offered Martin Albright free use of an A2 pistol for a couple of weeks or more, so that he can fully evaluate the gun inside and out. And to our understanding, Mr. Albright will be doing that and writing a report and review. Thus Karl Lippard looks forward to putting a finished A2 in Mr. Albright’s hands so that he can truly appreciate a finished gun and give the Lippard A2 a fair evaluation over an extended period of time.
As for the size of Karl Lippard Designs and his mass production of these new generation pistols, which have 16 US patents on them, let me say this. The first guns in Lippard’s mass production manufacturing of firearms entered service just this year. Lippard is literally on the ground floor starting a factory in Colorado Springs. Nothing of this caliber springs up over-night. However, in comparison, Lippard owns two state-of-the-art CNC machines that will go into service in the Colorado Springs factory, while Colt in its entirety owns only one CNC machine and it’s an old one.
None of the other gun makers hold US Patents on the guns that they make. John Browning owned the patents on the 1911, four of them, 1897, 1903, 1911 and 1913. Karl Lippard owns more than 20 US Patents today, and that number is increasing. Why don’t Colt or Ruger or any of the other majors own patents? Because they do not employ gun designers and engineers. The keep making the same old 100-year-old guns that are out of patent.
Lippard is the only production gun maker today that owns US Patents on its designs. While the other gun makers seek to just make different looking versions of the same guns, increasing their profits by using cheaper and more inferior parts, plastic parts and charging more money for them, Lippard breaks new ground by bringing in new technology, new designs and making guns that are the best quality anywhere, all of them Unconditionally Guaranteed for LIFE, all made in the USA.
All the big gun makers, Colt, Springfield, Kimber and the like, offer only very short and quite limited warranties, and no guarantees. They job out the manufacture of their components, mostly overseas to Brazil, while Lippard mass produces his components in the USA, made of steel that is also founded, forged and made in the USA.
Today Karl Lippard Designs firearms manufacturing may be the smallest guy, just emerging into the production gun industry world, after 30 years of custom gun making, and more than that of designing guns, but as more and more people put Lippard production guns to work and enjoy their accuracy, reliability and durability, Lippard will be a name that stands above all others.
Our thanks to Martin Albright and The Truth About Guns. Lippard looks forward to working with Mr. Albright as he comes to know the Lippard firearms better. We are very anxious to get the Lippard A2 in his hands for a couple of weeks, and then see what he reports.