Lemonade Grips

[sdh212]

Robb,
The grips are looking Great! Nice, high contrast wood with strong layout.

I think that you are finding out that trying to please someone by using marginal wood is a mistake for you and for them. Anything that requires "stabilized" means you are beginning with a second rate product, in my opinion. Anything that need to be 'reinforced' on the back will chip or fail on the front. Revolver grips are almost always larger, thicker and more subject to damage that knife slabs. So what may work for a knife may not be appropriate for a revolver.

Sure a variety of wood can be used but that doesn't mean any old scrap from someones local firewood pile is suitable. Juglans Regia, is Latin for "Royal walnut" as in French, English, Circassian, etc and in the opinion of most stockmaker's is the best gunstock wood, and the most beautiful. Sometimes clients need to understand that your opinion is the voice of experience and should be followed. Your choice of wood, how it's lay-out and finished is in their best interests. If they want a result that is still great 40 years later, start with the best today.

Making Colt one-piece SAA grips

[kings6]

Thank you Steven, I find I am getting pretty opinionated about materials. A set of one piece English walnut grips for a USFA are next on the work bench.

[bradshaw]

Oct 14, 2024 15:40:45 GMT -5 sdh212 said:

"Anything that requires "stabilized" means you are beginning with a second rate product..."

*****

While I’m neither a woodworker or grip maker, experience indicates there are beautiful panels which benefit from stabilization. Various walnuts and other woods which are not jungle-hard and oily are sussestible to moisture, which includes notoriously corrosive sweat & blood. Same experience indicates panels which do not sponge help prevent rust under grip panels. Especially in a hot humid climate, sweat corrosion can bite in the same day acquired. Blood is worse. These adversities act much more slowly in a northern or drier climate, yet when temperatures reach the upper fifties, effects may take shape the same day.

Having worked with a number of grip panels made by Ronnie Wells, I appreciate his stabilizing, especially among the walnut family. I grew up before stainless guns and stabilized woods. We didn’t neglect our instruments, we took care of them. Even so, their life was among the elements, hardly a moisture controlled environment.

Not sure whether my Cocobolo and Madagascar Ebony panels by Ronnie Wells are stabilized, they certainly are dense and the Cocobolo in particular throws off water the way an old growth cypress rejects termites. Ronnie machines panels precise to the grip frame, better than I’ve ever seen done. I’ll finish the outside to my hand, throwing lead in between sandings, taking my time. Exposure will soon include rain, snow, sweat, and an occasional blood.
David Bradshaw

[sdh212]

I stand by my statement that was presented as my opinion. If it need to be stabilized is is not suitable for grip making. Properly sealed, filled and finished walnut doesn't need anything else.
Steven Dodd Hughes, Gunmaker

[steve]

Oct 20, 2024 12:14:15 GMT -5 sdh212 said:

I stand by my statement that was presented as my opinion. If it need to be stabilized is is not suitable for grip making. Properly sealed, filled and finished walnut doesn't need anything else.
Steven Dodd Hughes, Gunmaker

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes burl walnut can benefit from stabilizing, especially if grips/stocks are going to be used on heavy recoiling revolver.

I respect you and your skills and talent a great deal.

Please let me send you a block of burl walnut to experiment with! PM me your address

Worst case, you can send it to one of the grip makers here on the forum

[sdh212]

steve,

Many Thanks for your generous offer, but no thanks it would be wasted on me. I pick walnut for gunstocks first for layout and grainflow, then second for figure or color. I have never cared for burl anything. My brother makes burlwood lamps for interior decorators, I don't particularly care for them.

To my eye European walnut (juglans regia) is the most beautiful wood in the world.

I enjoy Robb's initial choice shown above and the grips I show for my own long-barreled Colt.

Here are pics of a few grips I've made for myself, and kept.



EBONY with gold medallions

Above grips finished

[sdh212]

I also enjoy high-quality leather gear!

[squawberryman]

That third model (I believe) is worthy of those grips, and I miss Karla.

[bradshaw]

sdh..... sufferin baglapper, those are beautiful grips!
David Bradshaw

[sdh212]

Thanks...I notice that only one pair is checkered. I'm surprised, I check more grips than leave plain. I've been at this stockmaking business for almost 40 years.
Pre-War Magna style, checkered.

RUGER FLAT-TOP

KEITH BROWN ROPERS

IN PROCESS

CUSTOM .44 SP

3RD MODEL

[caryc]

Sept 14, 2024 7:33:49 GMT -5 45MAN said:

Sept 12, 2024 14:07:02 GMT -5 kings6 said:

There could be a thin micarta liner like used in knives. I’ve seen done pearl grips mounted on synthetic backing material. I need to research if stabilizing would serve the same purpose.

I WAS GOING TO ASK ABOUT "stabilizing". MESQUITE COMES TO MIND WHEN I THINK OF WOODS THAT NEED TO BE STABILIZED BEFORE USE.

I've made lots of Mesquite grips. Mesquite doesn't necessarily need to be stabilized. Also stabilizing needs to be done to the wood blanks before making the grips. If you attempt to stabilize already formed grips, they will most likely warp when stabilized.

[caryc]

Oct 21, 2024 6:08:33 GMT -5 steve said:

Oct 20, 2024 12:14:15 GMT -5 sdh212 said:

I stand by my statement that was presented as my opinion. If it need to be stabilized is is not suitable for grip making. Properly sealed, filled and finished walnut doesn't need anything else.
Steven Dodd Hughes, Gunmaker

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes burl walnut can benefit from stabilizing, especially if grips/stocks are going to be used on heavy recoiling revolver.

I respect you and your skills and talent a great deal.

Please let me send you a block of burl walnut to experiment with! PM me your address

Worst case, you can send it to one of the grip makers here on the forum

"If it needs to be stabilized it is not suitable for grip making". That statement is just plain ridiculous. I've made and sold hundreds sets of stabilized spalted maple grips.

[sdh212]

"Spalted Maple" doesn't that mean "Flawed Maple"? or "Rotten Maple"?

BTW: your web site link doesn't seem to be working? Thought I'd take a look at your hundreds of flawed sets of grips?

[potatojudge]

Nov 10, 2024 1:04:38 GMT -5 sdh212 said:

"Spalted Maple" doesn't that mean "Flawed Maple"? or "Rotten Maple"?

BTW: your web site link doesn't seem to be working? Thought I'd take a look at your hundreds of flawed sets of grips?

www.clccustomgrips.com/VAQ1.html

As I recall a flawed block of marble became Michelangelo's David. Rotten, to show the effects of fungus growing as we see in the preparation of so many meats and cheeses- is the only way to obtain certain flavors. The idea with spalting has always been to get enough fungal growth for the visual appeal but not so much it compromises the wood in a meaningful way, at least for folks running lumber mills and engineering conditions for spalting. 

Grips in this discussion are functional art. The threshold for functionality of gun grips is very low- just look at some of the junk factory grips that work just fine- that is to say they let you hold on to the gun without cutting your hands up. That leaves a lot of room for the "art" part of the equation. 

I don't have to tell you that stabilizing allows the enjoyment of materials that otherwise are unsuitable for grip making. Popular currently is the coronal cut mammoth ivory stabilized into a block suitable for blanks, then grips, and realistically the only way to enjoy this material in that orientation. You may not like it, but Nighthawk owners seem to. Then there's the spalted woods, burls, softer woods, etc. 

Like with epoxy pour furniture, I have concerns the polymers used won't age well. Then again, wood shrinks and ivory yellows and checks so nothing short of gold will remain stable over longer time frames, but traditional wood and ivory do have the potential to age gracefully and only time will tell with stabilized products. I suppose you could throw Micarta in the mix of uncertain longevity of the polymers.

My understanding is dense or oily woods not only don't need stabilizing, but they don't take particularly well to it. Mesquite, cocobolo, rosewood, ebony, bubinga, the list goes on. You can probably coax the surface oils out briefly to get the polymer to bond, but the depth of penetration is likely insignificant and lost in the grip making process.

I chatted with Ronnie quite a bit when he was working on his grip process, and the stabilization allows for consistent CNC milling of various woods. Folks like me wouldn't normally consider mill geometry, RPMs, feed rate, etc but it's crucial for his process and cactus juice makes his perfect fit at his price point possible.

It might just be my eyes, but some buffed stabilized grips lack the clarity and depth of traditionally finished woods. Then again, many don't so it's clearly not insurmountable or inevitable.  

In the end, we're not talking about a critical part of a space shuttle. They're just grips. 

[caryc]

Nov 10, 2024 1:04:38 GMT -5 sdh212 said:

"Spalted Maple" doesn't that mean "Flawed Maple"? or "Rotten Maple"?

BTW: your web site link doesn't seem to be working? Thought I'd take a look at your hundreds of flawed sets of grips?

OK, smarta$$. I'm going to do this one time only. I will post a link for you to view my website. As you will see, I quit making grips due to health problems. I actually had all the orders for custom grips that I could handle. I used to make grips for stock sales on my website but I had to quit doing that due to the volume of orders I was getting. All my customers were ordering grips made from the actual blank sets I advertised on my website. These customers sent me their grip frames for fitting. I have never had a set of grips returned to me due to the customer being unhappy with his grips.

There is a link on my website explaining what spalted wood is. I suggest you read it. There is also a link for grip blanks that customers used to order from. You can view my website using this link. By the way, I never stabilized cocobolo. Cocobolo is a very oily hard wood and need no stabilization. It polishes beautifully on a bench buffer and needs no external finish.

www.clccustomgrips.com/jindex.html