Slavia ZVP, Fabricating the Front Sight

Having measured the dovetail and drawn up the sight based on pictures I found on several sites, I got to work making a replacement front sight for the ZVP.

1/2" steel chucked in a collet block and faced with an end mill.

Cutting to depth on the first side.

Flipped 180 and the other side is cut. You'll notice it's sticking out less...well I actually had to start all over again at this point due to a dial revolution counting attention deficit problem. I could really use a DRO.

Turned 90 degrees and more milling.

And 180 to finish the process.

Tilted at 30 degrees to mill the dovetail. I didn't mill all the way as I wanted some wiggle room for final fitting.

Milling the chamfer on the blade.

Just a little more to go.

I filed the radius for the blade. I was going to do some fancy rotary table work, but figured it would be faster to file it.

Sawing off the sight.

Now to deburr...

I did several test fittings, filing the dovetail until it was a firm fit when drifted into the groove. Then I sloshed on some cold blue and called it good.

Another view.