New Model Old Model Blackhawk

[Sharps40]

A good bit of work both getting off the TruOil glop and doing some shaping so the grips fit my hand and I am able to hang on to the gun. I needed (smaller hands) much less wood at the top of the grip than what was provided and some thinning of the grip on the right panel for my trigger finger to reach the trigger and center it up on the pad for a consistent pull. Initially the tops of the grips were so thick and long that I couldn't reach the trigger easily and the grip was forced up and out of my hand....i.e. very little purchase with the last finger of the grip hand.

So, to the shaping....right panel first.....a bit of room by way of a relief for the middle finger of the shooting hand.

Similar work to be done on the left panel but this a bit higher and for the thumb to wrap around. Nicest part is the extra wood at the top allows shaping and I can retain some of the swell for repeatable positioning of the shooting hand.

After relieving both panels for fingers and thumb a bit of thinning, blending and shaping of the upper swells on the grip panels. Not as chunky as they were and not so thin as factory grips. Better for my average size hands.

The upper panels are compared as I go to get the swells much closer in size and shape to each other than they were to begin with. In all, I'm sure I removed over 1/16 to 3/32 of wood from the swells of each grip panel and they are still wider up top than factory ruger panels. These grips were rather club like in shape....much like a marlin stock, way too much wood in the wrong places to look well or even fit well. But, more is better, I suppose, since it allows for fitting to the hand and/or gun later.

The upper halves of the grip panels are now much closer in shape. The left grip panel grooved a bit to the rear for the wrap around of the thumb from the backstrap. The right panel, grooved a bit to the front for the wrap around to the front strap of the middle and trigger fingers. The overall feel of the gun in recoil and recovery is much more repeatable and my grip is no longer so low on the grip frame that I seem to have eliminated the feeling that the gun is oozing up and out of my hand....i.e. the grip handle feels longer, more fingers wrap around it.

Wet sanded twice with 220 and 400 and it looks pretty good.....but wait....

After drying and the first coat of urethane is rubbed in hot and hard......sanding marks pop up. I like to freeze the grain and sand once or twice more after whiskering as I've found with very hard figured wood like this that urethane will show any of the remaining sand/tool marks that water wiskering just won't bring out. Better to find it and smooth it out now than notice it in the final rub out. Some sanding marks that were not highlighted by water whiskering show up now in the lower grip at 3 oclock in the photo. More work with 320 and 400 after the first coat of urethane kicks over should clear them up.

 

[Sharps40]

I was recently advised that I in fact may not know what a quality grip looks like......I think these amboyna burls, nearing completion of their rework will rank among those fine home spun grips of curly maple, bloodwood and afzelia xylay that have been shaped for other projects. I think I'll stand beside those and these for quality. Mebby mine ain't masterful...but they look pretty darn good to me, and more importantly, they fit the gun and my hand.

The first freeze coat of urethane dried and polishing the last of the markings out of the wood. Wet/dry paper is used and the lube is that finest and most readily available of sanding paper helpers....spit.

Second coat of urethane rubbed in and the panels are done polishing. Time to move forward with carding and coating about four more times and then a final rub out back nearly to the surface of the wood for a dead level finish and a satin glow.

 

[Sharps40]

Making up a try sight. I have four long ramps. So, plenty to experiment with. I want to end up with a ramp and bead/blade combination about .530 above the barrel.

Jigging up to drill a pair of ramps for an 8x40 retention screw.

The Williams scissors jig paid for itself with the first four holes in a mauser many years ago. To this day it still delivers centered holes, even on tapered parts over and over again on my drill press.

Countersinking both ramps for a pan head 8x40 screw.

The ramp is screwed to an old barrel stub and the top is ground down to the line.

Now it fits the sight dovetailing jig and I plow out one corner for the dovetail bead.

Plowing out the other corner then I'll plow out the middle. All done with hack saw and files.

Final fitting of the sight to the ramp will be done with safe sided triangular files and no jig. The jig purposefully cuts a slightly undersize dovetail. Its finished when the sight can just be pushed snugly about halfway into the ramp with very firm finger pressure or light taps of a brass rod. From there only a sight pusher is used. Never use a hammer and punch to move sights on a ramp whether screwed or soldered on. To do so is to invite immediate removal of the ramp from the barrel.

Looking good. Should be fine when pushed home later.

Now is a good time to clean up the left and right sides of the ramp and round over the nose.

Next stop for this assembly will be on the barrel of the New Model Old Model to see how it looks.

 

[Sharps40]

After four coats of urethane rubbed in and cut back level and to the woods surface, the urethane is final polished with fff compound. After which, the first coats of hard wax are buffed into the wood by hand until hot and dry then rubbed out with clean terry. About 4 to six coats of wax will be rubbed in over the next day or so. The Glop is gone and the wood neither looks garish nor wavy. The feel is satin smooth and warm to the touch. Not cold like a shiny bar top. The shape is good. The fit is good. The grip is solid and the barrel to grip centerline runs along my arm bone without deviating left or right. Should make for a good pointer. And with the bit of swell up top in the grips, should handle recoil a bit better for me. A bit of arthritis in the fingers and gripping becomes more of a chore each year. No where near as beautiful as Afzelia Xylay in the alligator pattern but just fine for me and I'll leave this as is and move out front. Finally, the new steel and shorter ERH is inbound from the parts house, soon I can decide on barrel length and front sight options.

 

[Joe S.]

MUCH BETTER!!

I need to buy a sight pusher...

 

[Sharps40]

Them aluminum pushers from Bsquare do a pretty good job of pushing sights in and out on most Williams and Marbles ramps and assorted others. Can't speak for Marlin 336 ramps cause theys so ugly I unscrews em and throws em in the junk box, ramp/sight and all!

 

[Sharps40]

A bit of finish work on the try sight ramp. Knocking off the sharp edges for a smoother less ruger square/sharp/blocky look.

Along the serrated portion of the ramp the edges are lightly filed to a 45 degree angle

and then bootstrapped with 120 grit to create a rounded over edge.

The parallel edges on the dovetail portion do not need beveled over with the file. A simple kiss, bootstrap style with 120g is sufficient to soften and round over the sharp edges.

Very small changes add up over all. The ramp remains substantial yet looks much less blocky. All that's left is to smooth over the nose out front.

 

[Sharps40]

Photos of the project to date in natural light.

 

[Sharps40]

Back from ol kantuck....a couple days on my hands....so I planted 29 bulbs out front and got a buncha wild flowers and sunflowers to do yet but some time on the New Model Old Model too......

Sheriff length Vaquero steel ERH arrived today.......compared to the original steel full length ERH on this gun.....

Flame wrench and a good pipe full......the front sight has to come off it shorten the barrel and to jig the barrel for a new hole for the shorter ERH.

Jigged up and I use a dull drill and a small mallet to mark the spot I previously measured out and intented....if the dull bit just turns off the color around the divot I made, the jig is properly aligned for drilling the 6x48 hole for my typical stud and nut arrangement on the ERH.

After drilling about 1/10" deep I tap it 6x48 with bottoming taps and I get just over 4 threads....plenty.

New 6x48 hole left....factory 8x36 hole right (the old ones had factory 8x40 holes....don't know why they changed....finer threads hold better in my opinion.)

The new Vaquero Sheriff ERH is test fitted, its spot on....

The muzzle is squared and crowned using piloted hand tools. I'll shorten a bit later and crown deeper too. Final touch will be rounding over the circumference of the barrel so the edge is not sharp and scraping into the holster or cutting fingers in cleaning chores.

With a little black max adhesive, the rough front sight ramp is placed on the barrel to get the overall look.....the ramp will need some more rounding and smoothing.

 

[salover]

This is a very good and informative project you have going. Thanks for sharing. Those grips are just plain beautiful. Not a fan of the long sight base on the short barrel but, hey, it's your gun and not mine. Keep it coming.

 

[Hondo44]

Nice work. The 3 3/4" barrel length on the mid-size flat top looks cool.

Just FYI so some readers aren't confused, the Ruger ejector housing attachment screw (w/o barrel stud) was always and still is 8-36. Barrels with stud were 6-40.

 

[Sharps40]

My mistake above. I typed 8x32 and ment to type 8x36, corrected.

Please note, to date-All of my old models and my older new models all came with 8x40 screws (per pitch gages) for the ERH. Even the 1973ish 45 colt which became the Gentlemans Workhorse had an 8x40 thread plate on the barrel in place of the threaded hole as found on the .357 mag barrels. Its the only reason I currently have 8x40 bottoming taps on hand! Up till I got blackhawks, I only ever needed 6x48 taps for my work.

This 50th model suprized me. Its ERH stud and tapped hole was the coarser 8x36 which I noticed right away when I dropped the screw on the bench beside the 6x48s and 8x40s that were piled up next to the taps.

 

[Hondo44]

Well I've seen too many anomalies to say it ain't so. The 9 OMs I own from '54 to '69 and 30 or 40 others w/o the barrel stud I've worked on over the years, all have an 8x36 housing screw, though. And all the studded barrels have 6x40 screws.

 

[Sharps40]

Yer right. I'd betcha some of the changes is simple economics, like best price on a huge batch o screws and taps!

Pitch gages are best friends round here since 36 and 40 will go into each others holes but neither is likely to hold well or long!

 

[Sharps40]

I got a chance to see one of these handguns in two tone. But not the typical stainless or brass and black. Factory hot tank black and good old fashioned Plumb Brown. What a fine combination. It has me thinkin hard on Plumb Bown for this one!

 

[Joe S.]

Interesting. I bet that looked awesome!

 

[Sharps40]

It was. 50th Anniversary 357 with plumb Bisley steel grip frame and ERH.

I am thinking opposite pattern though.

Plumb brown receiver and barrel. Black grip frame, sight, cylinder, EHR housing, etc. Basically, brown body with black strap ons

 

[Joe S.]

What about leaving the barrel black as well? Kind of a faded CCH look...

 

[Sharps40]

To do a good job with the 2 tone having a blackened barrel I'd pull the barrel. As it is, this project may well see the removal of the banner on the left side so it'll need refinished anyway so, if I go brown it'll be the receiver and barrel.

 

[Sharps40]

Back from Chi-Kag-o where I stuffed myself on Chi-Kag-o Dogs with Sport Peppers at Portillos and Deep Dish Pizza at Giordanos for 4 days and now I gotta work it off.

So, finish up the ERH attachment by fitting a 6x48 screw in the freshly drilled barrel and making a pinch nut from some good old lasalle fatigue proof steel. Takes a nice thread and machines really well. I prefer the stud and pinch nut arrangement. If anything strips out in the future, it ain't likely to be the tender threads in the barrel, but if that ever does happen, I can open the hole in the barrel to 8x40 and make up a new stud and pinch nut. 6x48 is plenty strong. Ain't had one break yet on 45 Colt or 357 Magnum.

Also took time to final square up the muzzle and deepen the crown (11 degrees) with piloted hand tools.

Final check assembly. I'll shorten the pinch nut a touch later, after the screwdriver slot is final filed and the screw head polished. Then it'll be flush on the ERH housing. And I noted, with the barrel at 3 3/4" long, just enough room between the muzzle and the 50th Markings to dovetail the barrel for a nice bead sight too. So, will have to look that over and compare to the ramp as I do some final shaping on it and make the decision later. (I also need to compare these two options to a Williams short ramp, just to be sure.)