Life in 3D

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

As Linoge over at Walls of the City (which should have been on my blog roll a long time ago) noted, I am now venturing into making custom grips.  I actually got going in this direction because my wife has tiny hands and she was not happy with the grips on her revolver.  Me, being the kind of guy I am, looked at it and decided that it was silly that I should buy some grips that would still be too large when I can just make them myself.  So, here we are.

I am currently assembling the last of the equipment I need which will eat up about $800 (wonder if there are any venture capitalists out there wanting to throw me money….)

Anyway, once all that is taken care of and I have a proper workstation and tools I will begin production on some 1911, Hi-Power, Beretta and even a Ruger SP101 set of grips. These are what I am starting with because they are the pistols I have available.  I will probably be able to get hold of a Model 60 and do some S&W grips too,

If anyone has a special request for a set, feel free to let me know, I am always open to expanding my range of skills and I will back my work with a 100% money back guarantee.  I plan to be up and running by March and as things get closer I’ll let you know about the website, product designs and what I have available in inventory for immediate sale (I’m positive that this will include some full and compact 1911 grips as well as some Brownings).

I look forward to putting some work into your hands very soon.

Changes

From this

To this

Dirtcrashr was very kind sent me a nice large chunk of Koa wood to try out in making grips.  Needless to say, I love the stuff.  It’s dense and hard but with just a few applications of Tung Oil brought out these gorgeous colors.

I also benefited from advice from Kerry at the Smoothing Plane who answered all of my questions and pointed me in the right direction for some tools I can use, terminology and techniques.

Thank you both, gentlemen.

This particular set is unusual in that I only sanded it to 60 grit.  My dad wants a smooth set of grips for his Kimber and when he felt the last practice set that I had finished rough sanding he said the texture was perfect and he didn’t think I should take it any further. He then asked if I could make him a set for his CC pistol and offered to pay me for them.

Dad’s current set of grips has three groves in them (as you can see from the link) and he hates the way they feel.  So, I made this up for him and the only thing left is to see if he wants them oiled like they are or if he want’s them varnished.  Depending on how it goes, the rough sanded version might become part of my design lineup.

Varnishing will protect them better, but I don’t want to make them slick to the hand, so we shall soon see what it will be.  His birthday is Tuesday and these are his present.  Guess he can’t pay me for them after all 

Missed it by THAT Much!

OR “What a Beautiful Mistake”

So, as some of you are aware, I have started on the path to teach myself how to make custom grips.  I have tools (bandsaw, drill press, sander and various hand tools), I have skills (classically trained artist and designer), and I have wood (both hard and soft varieties).

What I don’t have is experience at making gun grips so I decided to start off the smart way with a bunch of reading, book buying and working on pine instead of something more expensive and so far that has been working out OK.  I cut out about 10 blanks for 1911 grips and began shaping and forming them into 1911 grips.

I used a set of 1911 grips that I had purchased as my pattern and marked the drill holes and then drilled, shaped and sanded until the looked right.  There were some flaws with angles and I still have the mag release notch and safety notch to cut out on the set, but overall I was pleased so I decided that I should try it on hardwood so I could figure out any changes I would need to do because of the material hardness.

So, after roughing out five sets in pine I pulled out the good stuff and went to work.  here’s the results.

Unfinished and without the bevels on the top and bottom, nor the cutouts required.  This set I sanded down to 400 grit sandpaper, normally I’ll take it to 800.  But the reason this set, my very first hardwood set, will never get finished?

The screw holes are off.

By just about 1mm.

Yep.  So, now I have ordered a second and third 15/32nd punch so I can clamp my pattern grip to the wood set both punches at the same time and make sure that the are not off at all.

If at first you don’t succeed….

Observations

So I have now started working on grips (as promised in my last posting about grip making) and so far I have demolished 12′ of 1×2″ fine grain pine and turned half of it into 1911 blanks while the other half it destined to become Hi-Power grips.  I also pulled out some padauk out that I had and cut that up too.

Right now I have ten sets of 1911′s in pine, two in Padauk, 8 sets of Hi-Power in pine and I’m working on the pattern for a Beretta 92.

Here is what I have learned so far.

1 – 1911 grips are sweet.  The flat back makes everything that much easier as opposed to the Hi-power ones where you have a multi-level back on the grip that has to be routered out just right or you won’t have a good fit and give lots of nice places for dirt, sweat and rust to get in much easier than it should.

2 – I like the Browning and Beretta Grips because the larger surface area gives a nice canvas for designs and textures.

3 – Power tools are awesome and drill bit stops are the bomb.  Nothing like precision to make everything look that much better.

4 – Padauk is seriously HARD!  Everything takes four times longer because it is so hard but the color of this wood is great.  It has a nice red-brown that would look good on dark or light frames.

5 – I’m gonna be buying more wood and setting a target of March as my ‘up and running’ date.  All that is left is the wood burning tools and that will come from the tax returns (the rest will go in the bank)

So hopefully in March I’ll have it all set to go; website, business cards, some inventory to sell, customers to make happy, the whole shebang.

New year, new chapter