my first attempt at gripmaking!

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ar15ed

Single-Sixer
Joined
Feb 27, 2008
Messages
327
Location
western north carolina
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!

giraffe1.jpg

giraffe2.jpg
 

hutchman

Blackhawk
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
865
Location
Benton City, WA
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!
 

Yosemite Sam

Hunter
Joined
Mar 18, 2002
Messages
2,113
Location
Cape Cod, MA, USA
hutchman":1087enum said:
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
 

Ryanusmc

Bearcat
Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
15
Location
Rhode Island
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

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
74
Location
Nashville, TN
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 :D

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

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
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

Single-Sixer
Joined
Feb 27, 2008
Messages
327
Location
western north carolina
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
 

SamV

Buckeye
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
1,017
Location
Missouri
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."
 
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