Some New Grips

[caryc]

I haven't posted any pics for a while. But every once in a while I make a pair that I really like. These Bisley grips were just shipped to the customer. They are gold stabilized spalted maple. Sometimes the really subdued spalted maple makes some really pretty grips. I just think the colors and pattern looks great.

I posted the bottom pic of my old Vaquero with a pair of similar grips quite a while ago but I was sorry to see them go also.

 

[SATCOM]

Cary,

:shock: Those are special! The twisted and almost parallel lines are are unique and lend themselves to contour of the grips. Could you see the lines in the blanks?

SATCOM

 

[caryc]

Cary,

:shock: Those are special! The twisted and almost parallel lines are are unique and lend themselves to contour of the grips. Could you see the lines in the blanks?

SATCOM

Yes, the lines are not from the spalting they are the actual grain pattern in the wood.

The ones on the Vaquero are the same.

 

[KLNC]

Very nice Cary, and good to have you back posting. I've missed seeing pictures of your grips.

 

[ar15ed]

beautiful!

 

[Jeepnik]

Please educate me, what does spalted mean?

 

[rugerguy]

yes indeed, those are awesome, and look GREAT on the gun, along with the contrast of the blue/color case...........nice job....as usual :wink:

 

[caryc]

Please educate me, what does spalted mean?

Spalting is caused by bacteria in dead or dying wood. It's actually rotting the wood. See the different colors and black lines in the picture below? That is caused by the spalting. The longer the spalting is allowed to continue the more beautiful the colors and lines can be. But, if the spalting is allowed to continue too long it can rot the wood to a point where it will be like balsa wood.

The spalting is stopped by drying the wood and killing off the bacteria. Most spalted wood is way to soft for gun grips so it needs to be stabilized. I send all my spalted blanks out to a professional to be stabilized. He has the equipment and know how to do the job right.

 

[doccash]

Cary, very interesting. More to it than I ever imagined. Dr.C

 

[caryc]

Cary, very interesting. More to it than I ever imagined. Dr.C

Some people who deal in specialty woods like this induce the spalting themselves by packing logs in sawdust and keeping the sawdust moist. If you have a piece of spalted wood that is still in the live spalting stage you can put it in a plastic bag with another piece of wood and the spalting will transfer over to the non spalted piece.

Spalted wood is not cheap. Neither is stabilizing.

 

[contender]

Stunning!

 

[Jeepnik]

Okay, I've got the spalting, now what is "stabilizing"?

 

[caryc]

Okay, I've got the spalting, now what is "stabilizing"?

From their site. http://www.stabilizedwood.com/info.shtml

Suppose you could take a piece of soft, crumbling wood and make it hard and solid, while retaining all of its natural beauty? What if this stock proved impervious to swelling, checking, and warping? What if it resisted water, and it's colors never faded? Sound impossible? Not anymore! You can perform this "magical feat" with nearly any piece of dried wood through a process called stabilization...

...How stabilization works
The process forces liquid acrylic resins into wood under high pressure. the resins completely impregnate the stock, and then cure...

...for manufacture into knife handles, pistol grips, boat trim, jewelry, a wide variety of turnings, and many other objects...

...What stabilization does to wood
Once stabilized, your stock increases in weight by 20 to 150 percent (porous woods such as spalted maple take on more resin than dense woods such as ebony). It becomes harder, stronger, and will not change shape. The color darkens slightly, similar to the way wood darkens when you apply water to it. Because the acrylic saturated the wood fibers, the pigments in those fibers cannot fade through oxidation...

 

[eric conrad]

Cary, as always Beautiful.
Eric

 

[caryc]

I just noticed that it looks kind of fuzzy or gouged out around the grip screw holes and even the medallion holes. Let me assure that it's just a trick of the light.

 

[Lee Martin]

The next gripframe I ship you Cary will get spalted maple. Nicely done as always.

 

[Jeepnik]

Okay, I've got the spalting, now what is "stabilizing"?

From their site. http://www.stabilizedwood.com/info.shtml

Suppose you could take a piece of soft, crumbling wood and make it hard and solid, while retaining all of its natural beauty? What if this stock proved impervious to swelling, checking, and warping? What if it resisted water, and it's colors never faded? Sound impossible? Not anymore! You can perform this "magical feat" with nearly any piece of dried wood through a process called stabilization...

...How stabilization works
The process forces liquid acrylic resins into wood under high pressure. the resins completely impregnate the stock, and then cure...

...for manufacture into knife handles, pistol grips, boat trim, jewelry, a wide variety of turnings, and many other objects...

...What stabilization does to wood
Once stabilized, your stock increases in weight by 20 to 150 percent (porous woods such as spalted maple take on more resin than dense woods such as ebony). It becomes harder, stronger, and will not change shape. The color darkens slightly, similar to the way wood darkens when you apply water to it. Because the acrylic saturated the wood fibers, the pigments in those fibers cannot fade through oxidation...

So that's why they stabilize ebony before it's used in things like pens and such.

 

[caryc]

Okay, I've got the spalting, now what is "stabilizing"?

From their site. http://www.stabilizedwood.com/info.shtml

Suppose you could take a piece of soft, crumbling wood and make it hard and solid, while retaining all of its natural beauty? What if this stock proved impervious to swelling, checking, and warping? What if it resisted water, and it's colors never faded? Sound impossible? Not anymore! You can perform this "magical feat" with nearly any piece of dried wood through a process called stabilization...

...How stabilization works
The process forces liquid acrylic resins into wood under high pressure. the resins completely impregnate the stock, and then cure...

...for manufacture into knife handles, pistol grips, boat trim, jewelry, a wide variety of turnings, and many other objects...

...What stabilization does to wood
Once stabilized, your stock increases in weight by 20 to 150 percent (porous woods such as spalted maple take on more resin than dense woods such as ebony). It becomes harder, stronger, and will not change shape. The color darkens slightly, similar to the way wood darkens when you apply water to it. Because the acrylic saturated the wood fibers, the pigments in those fibers cannot fade through oxidation...

So that's why they stabilize ebony before it's used in things like pens and such.

Never heard of what you're referring to, ebony is a hardwood and does not need stabilizing. I've made Gabon Ebony grips myself. Any wood can be stabilized but there is just no need to stabilize ebony. As I said stabilizing is expensive.

Some people may stabilize pen blanks because they are so small. The price they can get for them may justify the cost of stabilizing them. Stabilizing does make wood easier to work. It's not subject to chipping when routing or drilling and light wood such as maple is not subject to burning while working on a disc or oscillating spindle sander if held in one spot too long. But, as I said, you have to justify the price of stabilizing with the price of the finished item.

 

[Bob Wright]

Just a plain ol' Vaquero. Add some beautiful wood grips and pose it with some old weathered or charred wood, and Presto! a photographic masterpiece.

Bob Wright

P.S. Cary, you know me ~ everything that stabilizing prevents is what I like about wood grips. Without the warping, of course.

P.P.S. I've got some persimmon wood that one of my books describes as "American ebony."

 

[ruggedruger]

Beautiful.

 

[Chris]

Gary

Those are beautiful, have a 3 d effect to them.