1911 Grips

Interesting undertaking. I look forward to seeing some pictures of your work as the project progresses.

JD

 

I hope Sarge43 drops by, he has "some" experience with this type of work.
I remember him talking about conditioning of the scales (I think that's what they call the blanks) before working them to prevent cracking when they dry out later.

Sarge43 are you out there? I have been thinking about experimenting with a set myself.

I have a set of Hogues on my XSE and love them.
I want to make a one piece grip that would wrap around with finger groves.
I'm doing a design that would require no grip screws.



McNabb, keep us in the loop with the progress.

 

you can soak the wood in this stuff and it will not crack.

 

Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) Green Wood Stabilizer - Rockler Woodworking Tools

 

No way, not ugly enough!

Decisions, decisions, decisions?

Mac I'm impressed! And the Liberty head nickels are a grest idea! Will the proportions be good? I'm thinkin' they may be a little big? Maybe a Barber dime? Lay one of the nickels on the grip and take a photo, let's see em.

IMHO, I'd go with smooth on the first attempt unless you have done checkering before. It's tough!

Maybe stippling? It's way easier.

 

Hey! Looking good! I just stopped by to talk about what I think Cane was talking about when he said "condition" the grips - I believe he's talking about stabilization. Correct me if I'm wrong Cane. Stabilization is not generally needed on solid and/or dense woods (there are exceptions). It is a process by which the wood is impregnated with some type of polymer to make the wood harder or fill punky areas and just make the wood generally much tougher and mroe workable. Most professional services do this with an acrylic or polyester resin forced into the wood under high pressure so that the wood is totally saturated. This is the best way. You can do some light stabilization at home if you feel it's warranted with a minwax product called "Wood hardener" (available at hardware stores, home depot etc) or the REAL old fashioned home boy method of mixing equal parts of lacquer and lacquer thinner in a jar and letting the wood soak in it overnight at least. When you take it out, you'll have to let it dry thouroughly before using it or machining it.
I'm glad to see someone else trying their hand at grip making. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.!
I look forward to finished pics!
Sarge

 

I would not checker them grips. I would jsut sand them down nice and smooth and tru-oil them to death. Or do a clear on them make them nice and shiny. I think they would look great like that.

 

Mac, I hope you're doin' that caus U want to, not from peernius* pressure??



*peer + penis = peernius (get it McNabb?)

 

I told you guys sarge has his $hit in one sock!

 

"End of an Era", Nice, seeing how we just experienced Obamageddon or was it Barackocaust?

 

Damn Latin, failed it too!!