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The title may irritate some, but thought I'd share a detail of history that is unknown to most, but to start how I got ahold of this: an antique dealer locally got ahold of a batch of gun parts. I looked at those and saw an "in the white" slide and frame, and decided I would want to have it for they not looking basement made. When having it at home, the detailed view unveiled several stamps, especially on the frame, that I knew associated with Steyr Daimler Puch AG of Austria. The slide and frame though was identified as being the FN 1910 model, as friends had told me.
Given this weird combination of FN 1910 parts and Steyr logo on those made absolutely no sense. The only one that I could think of being able to help was a personal friend, who had spent all of his life working for Steyr, who was recently retired as well. I called him and told him of what I have in hands, and the outcome was a very big pause, so big I asked if the connection was lost - he then started his answer with [approximately] "where the heck did you get this from", but continued to tell me that the last time he had seen these was when he actually started working at Steyr, at the age of 15. It was very interesting to learn that when Steyr started producing the FN FAL assault rifle in license under the designation StG58 ("Sturmgewehr 58" (for 1958)) they also had a few contracts for FN they did. Among them was, what he told me, a million FAL magazines they made. And he told me that there were several trials to also supply other parts to FN - one of them being to make frames and slides for FN 1910 pistols, for what I remember he said those were supposed to go to an African country. They were left in the white and then delivered to FN where they were finished, hence a total loss of any "Steyr connection" (probably both sides wanted this back then?). He was sure that this piece must had been pulled from the scrap parts bin, but was very happy that it actually was safed, because it is the only proof that Steyr ever made them.
Anyway, attached some pictures, and I hope at least at least some of the FN collectors learnt something new with that.
Given this weird combination of FN 1910 parts and Steyr logo on those made absolutely no sense. The only one that I could think of being able to help was a personal friend, who had spent all of his life working for Steyr, who was recently retired as well. I called him and told him of what I have in hands, and the outcome was a very big pause, so big I asked if the connection was lost - he then started his answer with [approximately] "where the heck did you get this from", but continued to tell me that the last time he had seen these was when he actually started working at Steyr, at the age of 15. It was very interesting to learn that when Steyr started producing the FN FAL assault rifle in license under the designation StG58 ("Sturmgewehr 58" (for 1958)) they also had a few contracts for FN they did. Among them was, what he told me, a million FAL magazines they made. And he told me that there were several trials to also supply other parts to FN - one of them being to make frames and slides for FN 1910 pistols, for what I remember he said those were supposed to go to an African country. They were left in the white and then delivered to FN where they were finished, hence a total loss of any "Steyr connection" (probably both sides wanted this back then?). He was sure that this piece must had been pulled from the scrap parts bin, but was very happy that it actually was safed, because it is the only proof that Steyr ever made them.
Anyway, attached some pictures, and I hope at least at least some of the FN collectors learnt something new with that.
