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Ref. Firearms developed and manufactured in Southern Africa 1949-2000. By Kenn Gillie + Chas Lotter. Credit for this information goes to Pretoria Arms and Ammunition Ass. All rights are reserved. No part of this information may be reproduced, stored, manipulated in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any mechanical, electronic or digital form or by any other means, without prior written permission of the publishers. Any person who engage in any unauthorised activity in relation to this publication shall be liable to criminal prosecution and cliams for civil and criminal damages Barry Miller is the designer of the Elgin/ Finat/ Clarbex 6.35 mm pistol. He has been involved in the sport of practical pistol shooting since it’s inception in South Africa. He studied mechanical engineering and in 1972 opened his own gun shop trading under the name “The Gun Shop.” His shop offered a full range of gunsmithing services and as result felt the need to establish a relationship with overseas manufacturers and distributers of firearms, components and accessories. To thisend he, he attended gun shows in the USA and Europe at least twice a year.He was introduced to key players in the US firearms industry. At one of these shows, he was approached and asked ifhe could find a South African manufacturer who could produce 40 000 6.35 mm semi-automatic pistols manufactured in stainless steel. On his return to South Africa, he approached Armscor, and three other manufacturers without success. He then approached Roy Meaker of Elgin Engineering and put the proposal to him. Elgin agreed to put up the finance, if Barry Miller would put his time and expertise into the new enterprise. This led to the formation of a new company called Elgin Manufacturing Co (Pty) Ltd, which was jointly owned by Elgin Engineering and Barry Miller. Under this Umbrella, he set up a firearm factory in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Numerous problems were encountered with his South African sub-contractors and, in view of the long lead time needed to produce good quality pistols, the overseas purchaser canceled his order of 40 000 pistols. In 1979 Elgin produced the first Elgin 6.35 mm Model 10 INOX semi-automatic pistols. It must be noted that INOX is simply a synonym for stainless steel. Only a few hundred pistols were manufactured under the Elgin name. A few of the early Elgin models also have white plastic grips. These white grips were only sourced to be used as an initial test of the grip design and were not used again thereafter. In due course Elgin Engineering was bought out by Murray & Roberts and as a result, Barry Miller bought the assets of Elgin Manufacturing. He then formed First National Firearms Manufacturing Co. (Pty) Ltd. And introduced the trade name Finat – an abbreviation.of the company name. In addition to the Elgin pistols which had been manufactured and the Finat pistols which were being manufactured. First National Firearms also received a special order for a production run of 500 pistols from Clarbex, a company based in Johannesburg. These were sold under the model name CX635 Asp. The Finat pistols are stainlessteel with black grips.The CX535 Asp models have a black finish with black grips, or a polished finish with grips which have a gold trim molded onto the edge. Both the CX635 Asp models have an Asp medallion inset into the lower part of the grips. While approximately 10 000 Barry Miller pistolswere manufactured under three diffent names (Elgin, Finat and Clarbex), the great majority of these pistols were produced under the Finat name. Most of the Finat pistol were bead blasted, giving them a matte silver finish. Appoximitely one hundred were given a mirror polish, and a few dozen were engraved. The legend FINAT were positioned inside a stretched octagonal frame, which is etched onto the right hand side of the slide, as is the legend INOX 6.35mm. The SA proofmark is stamped on the top, righthand side of the trgger guard. On later Finat pistols the logo was roll engraved, as they were for the Clarbex CX635 pistols. Effectively this look like a stamp marking. In 1986 Budget Arms made Baqrry Miller an offer to buy him out. Since he had been unable to find a financial backer for his proposed new 45ACP pistol, he decided to accept the offer. Budget continue to produce the Finat from 1986 to 1989. The Finat is based on the 1910 FN Baby Browning with slight modifications to take advantage of production methods that were not availablein the early part of the 20th century.The Finat uses an unlocked Blowback, system of operation, the energy from a fired cartridge being able to operate the slide and cycle ammunition, with the return spring assembly mounted under the barrel. The safety lever on the left-hand side of the frame locks the sear. The extractor is mounted on the right-hand side and the firing pin doubles as the ejector. The trigger bar has a top extention which slots into a recess inside the slide when the pistol is in battery, and which disengage it from the sear when the slide travels to act as an effective disconnector. The firing pin spring guide has a spring loaded plunger, which protrudes through a hole in the rear of the slide, to act as a cocking indicator. Elgin engineering pistols have an EE before the serial number. Later Finat and all Clarbex pistols have a two digit year before FN and then the serial number. A few Elgin and Finat pistol have the actual manufacturing date (day, month, year) stamped on them. These pistols are 101 mm long and 250g unloaded. The magazine takes 6 rounds. Ref. Firearms developed and manufactured in Southern Africa 1949-2000. By Kenn Gillie + Chas Lotter. Credit for this information goes to Pretoria Arms and Ammunition Ass. All rights are reserved. No part of this information may be reproduced, stored, manipulated in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any mechanical, electronic or digital form or by any other means, without prior written permission of the publishers. Any person who engage in any unauthorised activity in relation to this publication shall be liable to criminal prosecution and cliams for civil and criminal damages

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