Kahr Arms' custom shop uses the PM9 as the base platform for its good-looking Black Rose.

Kahr Arms is well-known for building quality concealable handguns, and I've fired a number of them and found them to be reliable, good-shooting pieces. What I didn't realize was that Kahr also has a custom shop, and at a trade show earlier this year I had the chance to examine some of the work it turns out.

The Black Rose immediately caught my eye. The base gun is the PM9, a trigger-cocking double-action-only 9mm with a three-inch barrel. The polymer-frame pistol has a capacity of 6+1 (7+1 with grip-extension magazine) and a weight just shy of 16 ounces with unloaded magazine; overall length is 5.8 inches, height is 4.5 inches and slide width is just 0.90 inch.

To create the Black Rose version, which carries a suggested retail of $1,049, the artisans at Kahr give the stainless slide a high polish and then engrave it--adding inlays of black chrome and gold. I had only a brief time to examine the gun, but all the work seemed perfectly executed. If you think a polymer-framed semiauto can't be a looker, the Black Rose might change your mind.