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Production
of the Belgian Colt Army, aka Centaure, aka Centennial
Army, aka “1960 NEW MODEL ARMY” # Centaure C&B
Revolvers 1959 through 1973 # Centaure Production # Centaure Manufacturing Technology # The Human Factor – Potatoes, Serial Numbers & Other Quality Issues # Compatibility of
Parts, Quality of Materials and Workmanship – Comparison with 1st
Generation Colts & Italian Replicas # 2nd Generation
Colt vs. Centaure – Differences in the Details # Point of Impact vs. Point of
Aim # Differences are in the Details Indeed # Mythbuster |
Centaure C&B Revolvers 1959 through 1973: The
guns were made in Liège, Belgium, by the firm Fabriques
d’Armes Unies de Liège
(FAUL). Then owned and managed by cousins Albert (administration) and Paul
(operations) Hanquet. Paul is the great-grandson of
Jean Baptiste Hanquet who in 1853 signed a letter
from Sam Colt to the Liège Gun Trade stating the conditions under which they
might manufacture revolvers according to his 1849 Belgian patent. These
“conditions” specified high quality and payment of a royalty of 10 francs
(worth about $ 2 gold in those days, as compared to about 20 cents today).
Centaure Production: William B. Edwards and Sigmund Shore selected FAUL
for the Centaure project because they got to know them as one of the premier
Belgian gun makers and from a previous deal about musket replicas. For the
Centaure project Edwards supplied FAUL with 2 Colt Army 1860s of the Civil War
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“Bill“
William B. Edwards aged 30! |
period
as model guns from his gun collection. Their parts gave the FAUL technicians
details for finishing, type of polishing, color of blue etc. One of the
pistols had been dropped on concrete resulting in a slightly bent trigger
guard but was otherwise perfect. As an expression of faithfulness with which
the Belgians wished to execute the demands of Edwards they copied the guns
including the dent. Thousands of guards were cast up with egg-shaped bows.
Fortunately this was discovered early enough and corrected before the first
shipment left for the USA. Centaures sport a modern, shallow
regular rifling with constant twist, made by the button rifling process. The
caliber is a “real” .44 nominal of .441/.442 adapted
to .451 round. |
ball. The first gun, unnumbered, was kept by Paul Hanquet.
The second gun stamped MODEL was given to the then-president
of Colt’s. Edwards engraved it on the barrel ADDRESS FRED ROFF, HARTFORD, CT. Unfortunately,
neither correspondence with Nadine Hanquet about Paul
Hanquet’s, nor with Colt’s regarding Fred Roff’s Centaure did reveal anything about the whereabouts
of these 2 earliest pistols.
Centaure
Manufacturing Technology:
As usual with the Liège gun makers work was outsourced to regional
subcontractors and then put together at FAUL’s. State of the art modern
machinery has been said to be in place but was occupied at the time, for modern
gun production and to manufacture selected spare parts for Colt’s in Hartford.
Other sources claim, however, that the FAUL machinery was pretty old and worn
out and that much manual labor was used.
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Model guns were not
serial numbered but stamped with an “M” on barrel lug, frame & trigger
guard… |
…the
front of cylinder… |
Contrary to stories published in a number of gun
magazines FAUL was never assigned the status of an official spare parts manufacturer
for Colt.
Barrels, cylinders and frames for the Centaure were
made of tool steel. This job was outsourced to the Liège
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…and
the butt |
machine shop of A. L. Roncarati,
an Italian immigrant. At his shop the barrels were machined to shape, color case
hardened the loading levers, and machined the frames from solid forging, whereas
cylinders were lathed from stock. Early
on back-straps were constructed in three pieces,
welded together, thus avoiding use of special machinery. This is
in contrast to the way it was done at Colt’s for their 1st
generation where it is one piece. Later cast
back-straps were used at FAUL’s. Quality Control had the first
revolvers rejected because barrels did not line up with cylinders and frames. |
Due to
some error in the translation of the manufacturing instructions provided by
Edwards early arbors were made of low carbon steel. They stretched when fired
with normal black powder loads used in the USA because all calibrations of the
early design were based on data of the Belgian proof loads. As was found out
later these loads were much lighter than those used by the US shooters. The
arbor was changed to harder steel during early 1961.
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Roncarati did not have modern heavy
metal working machinery. So most all work done on metal parts fitted in the
white was done by hand. According to Bill Edwards’ associate Leslie Field
only one man was responsible for the “S” curve of the barrel lug. Metal
cutting hand tools and hand polishing was used. Another workman removed all
square edges with a metal cutting knife, again by hand. The one-piece
wooden grips were all made in Ougrée, Belgium. They were produced by fitting rough trigger-guards and
back-straps. The whole unit was then hand fitted together which
accounts for the close fit of metal to wood of the New Model Armies but
explains the need for numbering |
individual parts of the pistols.
Guns
fitted and assembled “in the white” were marked with their serial numbers
before being disassembled for bluing and case hardening.
Cylinder
roll-engraving work was done in Belgium except for the RNMAs with the Colt/Ormsby type scene
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This
naval scene was roll-engraved at Centennial Arms Corporation’s (CACC) shop in
Lincolnwood, USA on rebated, blank cylinders of what we call 1st
variation RNMAs today. These
RNMA’s were obtained from the Belgian factory fully proof tested. Ordering
and importing of the Centaures for the USA market
was handled by CASS’s sister company Mars Equipment Corp., Chicago. Mars
Equipment was also in charge of the military surplus business of the Shore
Group. By roll-engraving the Ormsby scene on the
cylinders these 1st variations became 3rd variation
RNMAs. |
In line
with Belgian test firing regulations finished guns were assembled and proof
tested at the Banc d’Epreuves de Liège (Liège Proof
house). This testing was performed with a heavy charge of lead over a heavy,
wadded charge of black powder. Each pistol passing the proof testing procedure
bears the famous “ELG Oval”on the cylinder. This “ELG
Oval” is the mark of the Liège Proof House.
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In
addition they were stamped with the distinctive “Perron
de Liège” on the left side of the barrel lug and frame. This arrow shaped
mark pictured above is a stylized rendition of a famous water trough surmounted by a water
tower in the center of Liège. Only after the pistols were returned from the proof house the
different barrel markings and the centaur logo (left picture) were applied at
FAUL’s.
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The Human Factor – Potatoes, Serial Numbers & Other Quality Issues:
As usual
when starting production of a new gun there were the bugs in the production
process. Edwards reports an incidence with the electro-brazing of the loading
lever lug to the barrel. This produced a problem that
was not solved for some time. It was noticed that slightly spotty rust
would form about 2 inches from the muzzle, marring the otherwise brilliantly
burnished button rifling. Repeated attempts were made to find the cause of
this, including instructions of the proof house about oiling after cleaning.
Still, light rust persisted. Then the same kind of rust was noticed in a rack
of barrels not yet sent to the proof house. When this was brought to the
attention of the works manager he explained that to keep the heat from spoiling
the bore the workman stuck a piece of raw potato in the
muzzle while brazing the lug….”No more
raw potatoes!”
While the regular production process for the
Centaures was established around early 1961 one could
still find a gun thereafter with minor flaws e. g. bolt hole in the frame
opened up too far, frame inside not milled right or the like. These
“imperfections” did not affect FAUL’s reputation as the premium manufacturer of
newly made Colt Army 1860s and the high quality level was maintained into the
early 1970s.
Compared to the manufacture of
modern weapons and as mentioned elsewhere the making of Centaures
was not automated but required mostly manual operations. This implies mistakes were bound to be made. The serial numbering of parts in
general, the numbering of cylinders in particular are
to be mentioned here. However, this issue was of little concern back in the
1960s but is a field of growing interest for today’s Centaure student and
collector. It can be summarized under the heading mismatched
Centaures. As mentioned elsewhere the numbering
of the parts took place when the revolvers were in the white before bluing/case
hardening and proof testing. Regarding records of proof testing documentations
at the Liège Proof house I believe the inspectors back then were concerned
about the matching of visible serial numbers only, i.
e. on barrel lug, frame and trigger-guard.
# To apply digits of the serial
numbers on the cylinders, either on the front or breech side, or additionally
between the naval scene (done in the USA) the dies were stamped manually. At
this point transposed digits did occur that just slipped through FAUL’s or
Centennial Arms Corp.’s quality system.
# After proof testing the pistols
were disassembled and cleaned before barrel marking, stamping of the logo and
the application of the MADE
IN BELGIUM for export sales took place. One can easily
imagine that a few numbered parts got not correctly allocated for the final
assembly of the pistols…
When this happened it was usually
the cylinder!
# Once CACC in the USA had
decided that they wanted the Colt/Ormsby rather than
the Centaure proprietary naval scene on their Centaures
they received their revolvers with the blank cylinders numbered to the gun from
FAUL’s, i. e. standard production 1st
variation RNMA’s. The roll-engraving of the cylinders
took place in the USA with the cylinder removed from the gun. Another area of potentially mismatching cylinders and pistols to be
considered.
All gun production (not
just C&B revolvers) at FAUL was concluded in 1976 after tough price
competition from Italian and Spanish manufacturers forced management to take a
hard look at costs. Manufacturing of the New Model Army came to an end during
1973 already. At that time customers were no longer prepared to pay a premium
price for a Belgian pistol when our average Joe Shooter could have the same
model MADE IN ITALY at
significantly lower prices. He was no longer willing to spend 2,5 times more
for better steel, smoother action and better rifling.
Particularly the European
muzzleloader community dropped FAUL as the premium revolver manufacturer, after
a number of unfavorable reports from unhappy shooters regarding broken triggers
and bolts, hand and bolt springs, faulty rifling or non centric bores during
the later years of production. Ca. 1971/72 FAUL had attempted to increase
production output to meet the growing market demand but was combating
manufacturing cost at the same time. To accomplish these objectives they used
new but badly trained workmen but shied away from invest into modern machinery.
The outcome of this approach was predictable: output of pistols increased but
so did the rate of product complaints.
Here is an unfortunate but
typical report of a German Centaure owner exemplifying the quality of many but
certainly not all of the Belgians Colts made during that period:
“I own
my 2nd Centaure since mid 1972. They were from Bärbel
Harlos in Bavaria. On the range with the first one the mainspring broke after the 3rd
round. Installed new mainspring. After the 5th round the handspring
broke. Installed new hand. After the 10th round the bolt stop broke.
Installation of a new bolt stop. After having fired
the 3rd cylinder the arbor dropped out of the frame. Thanks God not
during firing.”
“The
pistol was returned to the dealer. I got #12106 in exchange.”
“Experience
with #12106? Same maladies with mainspring, hand, waggling arbor, bolt stop,
broken trigger. – Being the engineer that I am what did I do? I repaired the
parts myself. Made a couple of handsprings. Fixed the arbor to the frame,
installed a new trigger taken from a HS 121 blanks firing revolver. Since the
case colored frame showed already signs of rust I blued that part. From BP
residue the brass trigger guard had developed some black spots so I had it nickel plated. So much about the quality
of these Super-Colts”.
Therefore, we have to
assume that the combination of high production cost but also spotty quality
forced FAUL’s first out of percussion revolver production 1973 and completely
out of gun making in 1976! In retrospect and all fairness, however, quality
cannot have been that bad back then. Because we have a number of Belgians of
that later period of production in the survey that were and still are regularly
and successfully used today (!) in CAS and bulls-eye type competition shooting.
Compatibility of Parts, Quality of Materials
and Workmanship – Comparison with 1st Generation Colts & Italian
Replicas: thanks to the work of FROCS #4 Rifle and Karl Nedbal
aka FROCS #50 Luger Master we have some current day evaluations as well.
Material
used is 2 to 3 times better than Italians: frame, parts, screws are properly hardened. The
barrel is very well heat treated. Modern,
shallow rifling.
Measurements
and dimensions: similar to original Colts
except for “S” curves of the barrel lug and the bullet
loading slot.
Barrel:
pins and the depths of the hole for the arbor in the barrel are different. The distinct “S” curve on the side of the barrel is “sharper” but also
lesser, flatter curved on the Centaure compared to 1st generation
Colts.
Outside
finishing: is nice but not as good as we are led to believe by
the 1971 Stammel and 1973 Modrau
publications in German gun journal DWJ. Better than Italians of current
production in a number of areas, however.
Contours
and measurements: are not more exact than today’s Italians. Possibly the
Italians copied the Belgians.
Screws: very
similar to originals and almost fit. A bit smaller:
Centaure 4 mm vs. 1st generation 4,2 mm. Thread similar, smaller
heads. Not properly fitted and often too short.
Internal
Quality: tolerances identical to
slightly inferior compared to current but certainly
better than contemporary production Italians.
Frame recess: too generous, hammer wobbly (too small, frame recess too big).
Mechanical dimensions of hammer notches including safety notch are different.
Hammers
& hands: 1st generation Colts have “fatter” hammers
with a pronounced “S” contour of the spur, see pictures below.
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“Fat” hammers of Uberti
(left) & Colt (right) with “S” contoured spur. Centaure spur is
steep and narrow. Longer hand of Centaure (center) |
Colt (top), Centaure (bottom) |
Hand: measurements are different, smaller pin, narrower, i. e. not compatible with original. Well heat
treated.
Cam
area: surface rough.
Bolt: can be
made to fit original, well heat treated.
Bolt/trigger
spring: different (too long, too thick and too strong) but
can be made to fit original. Well heat treated.
Wedge: not numbered as original. Thinner than 1st
generation but can be used for original. Well heat treated.
Trigger: hole not exact, quality comparable to Italians. Curve
does not correspond to original.
Grip: good
fit to metal, good wood quality. Back-strap fits original but workmanship does
not meet standard set by 1st generation.
Trigger
guard: fits original but workmanship leaves something to be
desired.
Arbor: sloppy fit with a pin from above through the treads.
Hole for wedge not cut exactly (too much heat treatment?). Dimensions similar
to original but sloppy, similar threads. Early pistols have the square ended
bottomed arbor like the original but most later ones feature tapered arbor end
fitting (unlike today’s Italian replicas).
Cylinder: smaller diameter at the rear end, locking notches
deeper and wider, ratchets similar.
Frame-to-barrel:
sloppy fit.
Bullet
loading slot: differently shaped compared to the 1st
generation Colts (below left). While the frame-barrel transition of both the 1st
and 2nd generation Colts is a continuous line the Belgian has the
distinct “Centaure Step” (below right).
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Different “S“ curve of barrel lug of
Centaure (top) and
Colt (bottom) |
Typical Centaure ”step“ |
2nd
Generation Colt vs. Centaure – Differences in the Details
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Centaures RNMA 7th variaton #12307 (top) & Civlian 1st variation #C418 (center) vs. 2nd
gen. Colt 1860 #207514 (bottom) |
To assess these
differences above 2 Centaures from 1972 production #12307 (top: fluted cylinder, stainless steel) and
1960 made #C418 (center: rebated cylinder, carbon steel) were compared to a 2nd generation Colt Army 1860
#207514 (bottom: fluted cylinder, 4-screw frame, carbon steel) from 1980.
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The 3 pistols
were disassembled, visually compared and the parts measured.
Measurements
are in mm/in unless otherwise stated.
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Differently
crowned Colt (left) vs. Centaures (center & right) |
Bolt/trigger
springs |
# Bolts screws (pictured below right): note different length, threads and tips even
between early and late production Centaures
# Bolts:
different lengths and angles |
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#
Mainsprings: The Centaure mainspring was the strongest one in the market back then
and still is today. This provides discriminating shooters with important edges:
positive ignition of the cap under adverse conditions. Little if any rearward
movement of the hammer during fire prevents chain-fires from badly fitting or
lost
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Heavy duty
Centaure mainsprings (center & right) vs Colt’s (left) |
Comparison of
back-straps: note welded BS of #C418 vs. cast of #12307 |
caps. More importantly
misalignment of chamber and barrel is reduced if it happens at all: if the bolt
leg is close to the hammer cam the cylinder can be moved by the hand upon
firing when a weak mainspring is installed. That would set the chamber
alignment off too much before the ball is out and make the pistol shoot…astray.
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Comparison
of triggers & trigger screws |
Wedges: bottom view
Wedges: top view |
Point of Impact vs. Point of Aim: the
Belgian wanted the Centaures to be reliable, accurate
and long lasting shooters, not display pistols. Hence they were concerned about
the guns being able to hit what a person was aiming at. They shoot low or to
point of aim, whereas the 2nd and 3rd generation Colts
and Italian clones always shoot high like the originals from the 19th
centaury.
The reasons? Beginning from ca. 1965 production the
front sights of the Centaures are higher than the
original 1st gen. Colts and clones (below picture). But even earlier
made Centaures of the 1959 to 1965 period have the
top of their front sight higher above the center bore line than other newly
made 1860ers.
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Nipples
of Colt (left), Centaures #C418 (center) & #12307 (right) Question for the initiates: which type of cone of nipples is advantageous to
prevent fragments of spent caps blocking the mechanics? Tapered cones used in
2nd or 3rd gen. Colts or Italian 1860s, or the
cylindrical ones in the Centaures? |
This provides the ambitious target shooter with lots
of room for adjusting the front sight to his personal needs.
We can also assume that their shallow rifling provides
for better gas sealing, i. e. higher velocities and
flatter trajectories of the bullets.
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Centaure
#F11117 (left) vs Colt #0858US
(right) |
Differences
are in the Details indeed:
as already pointed out by Bill Edwards in his 1962 book I believe that these
subtle differences to the 1st generation Hartford pistols were
intended at that time to discourage
easy fakery. E. g.
the legend ENGAGED 16 MAY 1843 on cylinders with the Centaure proprietary naval
engagement scene was discontinued in the Civilian
Model after the first ca. 480 pistols were made at the suggestion of
the influential Ohio Gun Collectors Association. On the other hand this
same legend ENGAGED 16 MAY 1843 is on all RNMAs with the Colt/Ormsby-type
naval scene (RNMAs 3rd variation). This variation was regularly
made from 1963 almost to the end of the |
Centaure production. In addition the marking COLTS PATENT No combined
with the serial of the pistol is to be found on the
cylinders of a few early pistols with this type of naval scene (1st
sub-variation).
It should be mentioned
that none of the Centaure cylinders roll engraved with any of the 2 naval scenes discovered so far bears the patent mark PAT. SEPT 10th
1850. This random
logic is barely understandable if considered in isolation. However, if we throw
in the new Italian competition we
have a completely different ball game from April 1963 when Uberti launched their
version of the Colt 1860.
Up to that date the
Centaure was the only game in town but this Uberti
clone did not
only feature the Colt-type naval scene on their cylinders but in addition the
legend ENGAGED 16 MAY 1843, the patent mark PAT. SEPT. 10th
1850 as well as the reference to famous engraver
Ormsby between the naval engagement scene Engaged by W.L. Ormsby New York!
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MYTHBUSTER #1 The Centaure pistols were
produced on 19th century machinery from Colt’s? MYTH BUSTED! #2 Old blueprints from Colt’s were
used to manufacture the “1960 NEW MODEL ARMY”? MYTH BUSTED! #3 FAUL official spare parts
manufacturer of Colt's? MYTH BUSTED! #4 Quality of steel used? MYTH
CONFIRMED! #5 Exchangeability of parts?
For the most part MYTH CONFIRMED! #6 Fall-off of quality during later
production? MYTH CONFIRMED! #7 Quality of workmanship? If pistols of later production were excluded quality is better than contemporary Italian repros. MYTH OPEN FOR DISCUSSION! |
WDN/January 18, 2011
© 2007 Wolf D. Niederastroth
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