That would be myself! I'm lucky enough to have a mill, lathe, and 35W Legend Epilog laser engraving machine at work I can twiddle with after hours. To apply the laser marking to the aluminum is just a simple burn. The Stainless requires painting on a special material (Cermark) and then fusing in onto the stainless with the laser which turns it black. I hated the goofy original CS45 slide markings, looked right out of Mork & Mindy to me. The font I picked gives it an 'agency' look and S&W is kind enough to provide hi res logos on their sight for download. I toyed a lot with the idea of marking this gun with the Performance Center logo on the RHS of the frame. In the end felt like I would be misleading those who saw it even though it got far more than that crew would be willing to ever do to it. Can you believe I was turned down for frame refinishing by S&W because I did the bead blasting myself (Even when I suggested/offered to sign a 'best effort' waiver)?

I'm really glad I decided to share it on this website, as no one I show it to locally understands it's not a 'regular' CS45. Just not a lot of them floating around here I guess. The armorer where I had it inspected exclaimed to his coworker, "Look, S&W's made a new CS45" to which I replied, "No, I made a new CS45" which instantly got me access to the tool room and about 100 questions to follow. Other than the group here at the forum every other comment has been, "Oh, nice gun". So thanks again to all who have showed appreciation