Spalted grips

[swindler1]

Working on these for one of my own

 

[Ken ONeill]

Very, very nice!

 

[eveled]

Those really do look amazing. Very very nice.....On a side note. My father had a friend who died from a fungus that got into his lungs from spalted wood dust.

 

[cmacrph]

Nice work!! Love those lines that look like a back country Texas road map. Those grips look great on stainless and probably just as stunning on a blued revolver. Have you got any more of that great lookin' stuff that you could make a pair for an old pistol packin'
Grandpa?

 

[Bountyhunter]

Very nice!

 

[Tellico]

:shock: :lol: :lol: That screw may hurt with hot loads! Nice looking grips.

 

[Bountyhunter]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Salmoneye]

Another beautiful set, Mr Swindler!

Spalted Maple is one of my favorite woods for grips, and the one I have the most of to work with...

 

[Tommy Kelly]

Those grips look totally awesome. I bought a set from ebay once and also a set of burl wood grips for another sp101 I have. just the little inserts and they looked great. I put them on the guns and 1 gun went in my wife's vehicle the other gun was left in my gun room after about a month I pulled both out to wipe them and the finish on both grips was bubbled up and ruined. The gun in wife's car is kept in a zippered case but the ones in gun room were left out on shelf. Both finishes were ruined I guess the wood was high moisture when finished or something. but sure ruined 2 nice sets of grips. I put the plastic inserts back on her gun and removed the finish on my grips and put the bare wood back on mine.

 

[contender]

I too think spalted maple is one of the neatest woods to use for stocks. I love the look. Between that & Holly,, I'm in heaven with custom stocks.

I do have a question,, tell me more about the "Trans Tint" shown. How you use it & all. That looks very intriguing.

 

[DeletedMember275]

Those look absolutely outstanding! CLC (Cary) used to get some spalted Karelian Birch a few years ago that he made some absolutely beautiful grips from. I procrastinated, and he no longer offers them. Guess I need to get me some spalted Maple instead.

 

[trouble]

Gorgeous sir!

 

[Slyk Willy]

beautiful! Nice work.

 

[Tallbald]

Just beautiful. I myself make grips from spalted bradford pear. I love the pen and ink appearance of the fungal growth, I will caution you, if you don't already know, that sanding and cutting and especially on spalted woods releases spores than can take up residence in your respiratory tract with nasty results. I use a fine particle bio industrial rated super duper filter mask and have the shop doors open when I work with woods, especially spalted ones. I also change clothes and bathe afterwards. Once I had an allergic reaction to rosewood I was sanding for grips. Rash and hives despite shop apron and respirator. MD trip for steroid shot and oral steroids resulted. Some folks are allergic to contact with the fungi that cause spalting too. Some makers use heat to kill the fungus before working the wood too, so the spalting is halted I have read, but I don't know much more than that about the process. Same precautions have to be taken on the heat treated wood too after it's heated. Beautiful work. I hope I haven't offended anyone by offering these cautions. Don

 

[caryc]

Just beautiful. I myself make grips from spalted bradford pear. I love the pen and ink appearance of the fungal growth, I will caution you, if you don't already know, that sanding and cutting and especially on spalted woods releases spores than can take up residence in your respiratory tract with nasty results. I use a fine particle bio industrial rated super duper filter mask and have the shop doors open when I work with woods, especially spalted ones. I also change clothes and bathe afterwards. Once I had an allergic reaction to rosewood I was sanding for grips. Rash and hives despite shop apron and respirator. MD trip for steroid shot and oral steroids resulted. Some folks are allergic to contact with the fungi that cause spalting too. Some makers use heat to kill the fungus before working the wood too, so the spalting is halted I have read, but I don't know much more than that about the process. Same precautions have to be taken on the heat treated wood too after it's heated. Beautiful work. I hope I haven't offended anyone by offering these cautions. Don

Working on raw green spalted wood can cause problems to some. Spalting is caused by bacteria in the dead or dying wood. The longer the spalting is allowed to continue, the more beautiful the colors and lines can get. Letting the spalting continue too far and the wood will become almost like balsa wood.

The spalting is stopped by drying the wood. This allows the bacteria to die. I get all my spalted wood stabilized so I really don't have to worry about it. I also have a dust collection system hooked to all my machines. When I'm working I also have a swamp cooler that I turn on slow speed so clean air is constantly being forced into the shop and the old air is going out the open window.

Working on any wood and creating a lot of sawdust if breathed in is dangerous to your health. One should have a good dust control system if it is something they do regularly. Or wear a good dust mask which can be rather cumbersome.

Someone mentioned buying some spalted wood and having the finish bubble up on them. I suspect the wood was not dry enough when the grips were made from it. It needs to be down to about 6 to 8% moisture content.

 

[swindler1]

Thanks for the heads up. I also have all of the things I use hooked to a dust collection system, here at home and at the shop. If you look at some of the pictures I have posted doing hand sanding you can see a small downdraft box I built that I sand over.
The home shop also has a JDS overhead filtration system in place and I use a Trend Airshield Pro when I work with certain woods.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

SWEET !! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[NorEaster]

Wow! Those grips are beautiful!