Conceived in 2002 and brought to reality almost twenty years later, the GA911 is the product of countless hours of passion, hard work, talent and skill by a team of exceptional American artisans.
There are many ways to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001.
The GA911 is a monument crafted in the design of “America’s Pistol.” It brings historic material and American craftsmanship together in a functional object created to preserve memory across generations.
The first soldiers sent to counterattack the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks carried a small piece of metal from the wreckage of the World Trade Center with them to Afghanistan.
A36 structural steel is ideal for its intended purpose, but it is not gun metal. To withstand recoil and contain more than 20,000 pounds per square inch of chamber pressure, the material required a carefully engineered transformation.
The World Trade Center steel is not a cosmetic attribute added to the GA911. It is present in the very soul of it.
The challenge was to change the material without homogenizing it into something unrecognizable. The answer was pattern welding, commonly known as Damascus.
Thin pieces of different steels are forge-welded together, combining their individual characteristics into a material that is both strong and resilient. Acid etching then reveals a visible and tactile pattern as distinctive as a fingerprint.
Most blacksmiths cannot create a billet large enough to build the frame of a 1911-style pistol. The size limitations of conventional forges, presses and hammers prevent most craftspeople from attempting an undertaking of this scale.
Gotham Armory is honored to have Rob “Deker” Dekelbaum as part of the team. After nearly a year of trials, he developed the formula for the GA911 using 1075, 1050 and 15N20 steels together with the World Trade Center steel.
Dekelbaum also conceived and built a machine he named “Screw-cifer” to twist the slide billet into its distinctive pattern.
In 2017, after years of searching for steel with a direct and confirmed origin at the World Trade Center, Gotham Armory connected with retired Detective Sergeant Michael Capiola.
To perpetuate the memory of those who died on September 11, Detective Sergeant Capiola donated two pieces of steel to the GA911 project. One was approximately three inches thick, eighteen inches long and eight inches wide, weighing 127 pounds. He retained it from the time it was acquired at Ground Zero until its transfer to Gotham Armory.
It is from this documented World Trade Center steel that the GA911 was created.
The Gotham Armory WTC Honor Pistol GA911 is American-made, with its parts sourced, machined, manufactured, assembled and finished within the United States.
The steel recovered from Ground Zero has been followed through every stage of its journey from Lower Manhattan into the completed presentation. Gotham Armory is proud to be the creator of the WTC Honor Pistol and to carry a “New York, NY” manufacturer’s rollmark.
