We take a look at Stan Chen Customsโ excellent aftermarket 1911 thumb safeties.
Itโs easy to become a snob in this business. There are many truly good products, but by the same measure, there canโt be too many. Iโve known Stan Chen for (mumble, mumble, how many years?) a good long time, and he never ceases to amaze me.
He just sent me some of his thumb safetiesโand wow. OK, so you want a safety on your 1911, but which one? How big, what shape, what need?
Stan makes three; theyโre all stainless, and theyโre all perfect.
Youโve got the โbaby bear,โ which is the short, narrow, thumb safety for deep concealment.
If you have bigger hands or less need of deep concealment, then the โmamaโ safetyโthe longer and wider one, but not too long or wideโwill serve you perfectly.
And then, for those who donโt worry about concealment or have learned to dress around the gun and want all the leverage they can get, thereโs the โpapaโ safetyโlonger, wider but not lower. (Not a โ49 Hudson, so to speak. Itโs an inside joke.) Open carry, competition, or just โI want a big safety.โ
All three are de-horned, so there are no sharp edges or corners to bite or gnaw your hands. They are all deeply grooved on top, so you will have full purchase to press them off when the noisy times commence. With the deep grooving, those of you who are doing it properly, that is, your thumb riding on the safety when firing, will not have to worry about your thumb slipping off during recoil.
And they are, after being machined, bead-blasted so they donโt show the toolmarks (not that Stan would leave any) and will blend in with any finish except a polished stainless or nickel 1911. (Who does that?)
And those of you who have had an opportunity to wrestle with various 1911s will appreciate this: The detent angles and engagement surfaces have been designed and engineered so it clicks on and off cleanly and precisely. No squish, no โis it off or on?โ where is the lever ridingโStan wonโt have it otherwise.
They do require fitting, because there is no such thing as a drop-in thumb safety on a 1911. And since you are springing for top-end parts, you might want to practice on a lesser thumb safety before touching a file to a Stan Chen Custom part.
If stainless isnโt your thing, or you have a blued 1911 and donโt want the contrasting finish, of course Stan makes them in blued steel. Cโmon, get real. The safeties, like all the other Stan Chen Custom parts, are made in-house by Stan or an assistant who has been trained by Stan. Stan doesnโt send things out or have subcontractors and thus doesnโt have to gauge everything nor negotiate โgood enoughโ specs and dimensions. Itโs right or it doesnโt get packaged and shipped.
Quality doesnโt come cheap, but remember the old adage, โBuy right, cry once.โ At $75 to $80 each, you could buy any of a wide selection of thumb safeties for less โฆ even half that. And after youโve fitted it, then de-horned it and adjusted the up-and-down engagement, the saved money will be nothing but a memory, replaced by the recollection of the hassle of refining your โinexpensiveโ part.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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