my first attempt at gripmaking!

[ar15ed]

alright, you guys be easy on me. any of you who have old colt 32 police positives know how scarce grips are for them. i recently got a nice nickel 2.5 incher, circa 1933, without grips. i have searched for a while for a decent set, and finally decided to try to make a set. i made a pair of scales for an old italian switchblade a few years ago from mammoth ivory, and they turned out pretty nice, but i quickly decided that two chunks of ivory large enough to make the grips were gonna be insanely expensive. i had looked at giraffe bone at a few knife shows, and decided to try some of it. it is almost as dense as ivory, and has a very pleasing coloration. i ordered a pair of chunks from south africa, and they took nearly 3 weeks to arrive, but they looked real nice. i got a couple of nickel grip medallions off ebay, and rounded up some nickel ferrules and a screw. after a lot of thinking and engineering, i attacked them. i think they turned out pretty good for a first attempt at something like this. i did run into one snag: the colt medallions are 33/64 diameter, and there isn't a 33/64 diameter forstner bit for sale on the face of the planet! i had to get a 14mm, and gently work it down on a belt sander. it ended up working pretty good.

anyway! here are a couple of pics. like i said, be easy on me! i have spent a bunch of hours trying to make them look like old colt grips!

 

[hutchman]

I know nothing about old Colts, but I do know this.....if I could make a set of grips that looked that good, I would be very happy.

They look great to me!

 

[dougader]

I think they look good, too. And the gun is awesome.

 

[KWYJIBO]

I think you did a great job, and that is a beautiful old Colt!

 

[wixedmords]

Those grips are fantastic ar15ed.

Nothing as pretty as an old Colt. You should be very proud.

 

[45Colt_Man]

For a first attempt that is excellent work. Excellent work period.

Dana

 

[Yosemite Sam]

I know nothing about old Colts, but I do know this.....if I could make a set of grips that looked that good, I would be very happy.

They look great to me!

+1! Can't add much to that.

-- Sam

 

[arminius]

Very nice indeed!

 

[Knuckles]

The descriptive word is.......................... elegant! :wink:

 

[americal]

That whole deal cranks my tractor 8) feel like I would need a WHITE suit to carry that fine looking colt

 

[Ryanusmc]

Stay out of RI, my girlfriend would do dirty, wonderful things for that gun. She bought a 4" 38 special police positive last year for herself as a 21st birthday gift and loved it but had to sell it due to finacial woes.

Very classy indeed.

 

[Papa]

ar15ed, you did yourself proud on that one Buddy! I've made several of my own grips/stock ans some for friends. I've bought some from members of this board as well as professionals and I have to say those are OUTSTANDING

The time and effort you put into a project like that can't be summed up in dollars and cents spent on some other person's labor,

Papa

 

[contender]

First,, those grips are first rate & quite nice on that old Colt.
Your choice of material reminded me of our trip to Idaho this past fall, where Zeus was showing us a VERY nice knife that had exotic bone handles. They too were white. Well, after he worked over his elk, the bone absorbed some of the blood & developed a totally different look. While it surprised us,, it didn't look bad. He chose to leave it alone.
Maybe he'll post a pic of it.

 

[ar15ed]

thanks for the kind words! they took an awful lot of planning and tedious work. i am afraid if i was trying to make a living doing it, i would quickly starve to death! but, i had been wanting to try it for a long time. now that i have jumped in, i may try another set.
ed

 

[Colonel Daddy]

Beautiful grips and fine old Colt. I need to know more about Giraffe bone.
My wife has mentioned getting a Colt to carry, so I don't dare show her this thread. She will fall in love!!! :lol:

 

[w18764560]

Beautiful work!! Only one problem as I see it....
it's not MINE!!!
HeeHeeHee

 

[Del J]

Very nice Colt. Excellent work.

 

[revhigh]

I like 'em !!

REV

 

[SamV]

Mighty purty! That gun would look great photographed on a card table with some cards and poker chips around it. To quote ZZ Top, "Nuthin like a sharp dressed man."

 

[Lo-Bo]

Nice job they look great as does the Colt.