by It was announced on Facebook yesterday that Bill Laughridge had decided to close down Cylinder & Slide after 44 years and retire. Bill was the 2005 Pistolsmith of the Year which was awarded by the American Pistolsmith Guild.
Cylinder and Slide would like to announce that after 44+ years of business, we are ceasing operations. We would like to thank our countless customers and fellow industry partners for all their support and assistance throughout all these years.
We do have quite a bit of inventory, fixtures, equipment, factory parts, etc that we would like to move. If you have any potential interest, we are accepting email inquiries only; info@cylinder-slide.com. There is too much list at the moment, but we are generating lists of what we have.
Please congratulate Bill on being able to finally retire!
I only got to meet Bill once and that was at last year’s Dallas Safari Club Convention. He was working on one of the new Springfield Armory SA-35 Hi-Power clones. He gave me a few minutes of his time to talk to me about his impression of this pistol. It was good, by the way.
Innumerable articles have been written about the custom pistols that have come of that shop. Here is a link to a few of them.
Another announcement notes that guns that are in process will be finished. For those that have a deposit down waiting for custom work, the deposit will be refunded. They suggest going to the American Pistolsmith Guild (see above link) to find a pistolsmith if you need custom work done.
Best wishes to Bill for a happy retirement.
I’m sorry to see C&S is closing. Always wanted a C&S modified HiPower, but never had the money.
Best wishes to Billy! It is long deserved! And the quality guns they built/worked on will be an enduring legacy for Cylinder and Slide.
Pity that there isn’t someone able and willing to take the operation over like happened with Milt Sparks Holsters.
I have to agree with you 100%. I think the lack of a successor is the curse of many small businesses.