Ivory grips and makers

[wickerbill]

Walrus ivory is much harder than elephant. Cary, I shoot mine with no ill effects that I can tell. I keep them oiled so they don't get brittle.
Bill

[caryc]

Rigby,

Those mastodon tooth grips are "too die for". I would think that fossilized ivory would be more prone to breaking than regular ivory. Only my opinion, don't know for sure.

As far as stabilizing, I get my stabilizing professionally done with none of this home brew stuff. They have the equipment to do it right. I have had many many grip blanks stabilized and have never run into one that revealed an unstabilized area while working and cutting into it.

Sometimes when doing the very soft spalted maple it will tend to swell the wood and crack it but this is very visible and I just don't use those blanks.

I asked my stabilizer about doing ivory and he said he could do it but no garantees because depending on the age and condition of the ivory it could crack as well during the process. Once the process is done successfully on ivory and a pair of grips made from it they are much more stable and practically indestructible. Of course I'm sure that the stabilizing would stop any natural aging and coloring that raw ivory would do, so it'a a double edged sword.

Ive thought about buying some ivory blanks and making a set myself but since ivory is such a precious material and I'm not experienced with working it, I chicken out each time I think about it.

[rigby]

Cary, In the stabilizing process is it done under pressure? What is the approx. weight change form stabilized and unstabilized?
Have you tried to make grips from bone? Is that close ya think to ivory in consistence?

[caryc]

Jun 1, 2009 19:45:40 GMT -5 rigby said:

Cary, In the stabilizing process is it done under pressure? What is the approx. weight change form stabilized and unstabilized?
Have you tried to make grips from bone? Is that close ya think to ivory in consistence?

As I understand it, stabilizing is done under very high pressure.

On the spalted maples, stabilizing probably increases the weight by 4 or 5 times. Of course the dried spalted maple weighs practically nothing since it is in the rotting stage.

I just put a new pair of stabilized spalted karelian birch new XR3 grips on my site. I weighed "one" of the grips on my postal scale and it weighed 1 oz.

I weighed a non stabilized cocobolo grip and it also weighed 1 oz. Cocobolo is a very dense wood. I weighed a non stabilized maple grip and it weighed .5 oz. I imagine that walnut would weigh about the same.

[carl]

I have three pairs of the rather scarce Ruger Factory sold Ivory Grips.
No, I don't put them on shooters.

Carl

[caryc]

Rigby,

Forgot your other question. I would imagine that bone is a lot more porous than ivory.

Carl,

Since the original Ruger ivory grips are worth a heck of a lot more than new made ivories, it makes a lot of sense that you don't shoot with them on. If you don't have to worry about money, you can always replace a new made ivory grip but you can't replace an original Ruger ivory.

Still a shame in my opinion to see a broken elephant ivory grip.

[nobearsyet]

It is, especially since they're so expensive

[bigj71]

Here's some ivory....maker unknown but I know they are about 150+ years old...

[inFALable]

Roy Fishpaw told me ivory wouldn't hold up to .500 Linebaugh recoil so I went with Dall's. That was the best move I've ever made. Otherwise I probably would never had discovered how great they are.

[sugarriver]

Dan Chesiak did these on a USFA Pre-War. My lousy pics don't do them justice, they have streaks of color much like the no 5 posted by majorkap.
Pete

[redberens]

Jun 1, 2009 17:59:51 GMT -5 rigby said:

Hey Rigby - I remember reading this article in Guns & Ammo years ago. Do you know what month/year that issue came out?

[Fowler]

May of 1992, I have a PDF of it if you want it. File is pretty big though.....

[Frank V]

I've had good luck & looks using Ivory on the .44 Mag & .45 Colt, both have been shot a lot. I use mostly mid loads in the .44 Mag. Frank