How to customize your 1911 grips

[srt 10 jimbo]

my Taurus Pt 1911 grips

[Woodnut]

Hey man! those are some awesome grips.
Did you make them from scratch?
What about the carving of the skull, that looks great. Tell us a little about yourself, and some more information on the grips. Looks like Maple to me but then these pictures can be deceiving, might be KOA.
Thanks for posting, looking forward to some conversation with you.

[Woodnut]

I know I have posted these grips before, but this is a photo of them after the customer requested the Badlands Texture on them.

This is a before and after of the grips. The finish was also changed from a high gloss to a Satin.
Comments Welcome
Enjoy!

[Woodnut]

I apologize for not letting ya'll know before now. I have been away from the forum for a while with shoulder surgery and now I am healing well and on vacation with my wife. I will be back online next week when I return home. In the mean time if you have questions please direct them to cwgrips@gmail.com
This email will come to my cell phone.
I will be up and running by next week.
see ya.

[Woodnut]

Well I am finally about half way back to normal. The shoulder is still a little sore but for the most part I can do pretty much what I want except reach real high. (no jumping jacks)
We made it home from vacation Saturday late. I spent Sunday resting and then yesterday I spent all day catching up on the email that I hadn't answered and talking to customers I had put on hold. Maybe today I can post a little and then work in the shop for a while.
You know the best part of a vacation is when you get home. Those vacations will wear you out.

For you people that want to build your own grips, but let the screw hole spacing scare you off. I have built a jig out of Aluminum with a Stainless hardened drill bushing that will be a big help to those afraid of hole spacing. This jig lets you drill the holes exactly spot on every time.

I have made up kits to sell on my web site. It is explained very well on the site, there are 4 ways to buy it. From the Deluxe to just the jig alone. For example the Deluxe comes with the jig, the drill bit, the step bit, wood scales and a 10 page .pdf file that serves as a tutorial, step by step to walk you through to the finished grip. Then there are 3 variations of the kit at different prices, so you can pick and choose the one you would like. This is located on page 5 under the pricing tab on the web site.
This is a picture of some grips a customer sent me. Some more grips that I had not photographed.

[UncleDannie]

Welcome back, Carl. I just received my jig today, will start using it this weekend. The workmanship of the jig is flawless, like all of your endeavors. The PDF file was well written and the photo tutorial was easy to follow along. Again, welcome back and thanks.

[Double D]

Carl, do you know what happened to the original grips off of that Smith TA you have in that picture? I am interested in them.

[Woodnut]

Well it has been a while since I posted anything, mainly because of surgery and a Hurricane. Here is 3 sets that just rolled out of the shop. Will have some more hopefully before I leave for GA. The first pair is for a Valor in which the customer wanted to match the font used on the slide of the gun to letter the phase "Live Free or Die" The wood is Olive. The next 2 sets are dyed stabilized spalted maple, they are for a pair of matching Colts. One full size, the other is a Officers Model.
Enjoy!

[jedwil]

Beautiful work, as always, Carl...........Keep posting your artwork and we'll keep droolin' and dreamin'.

[GunnyGene]

Just joined the forum the other day, and have been poking around on the site a little. Pleased to see there are other folks here who make grips. I've done a couple, most recently for a Sig 1911-22 I bought this year. Birdseye maple, ebony. The lettering was laser etched, the stripes cut from ebony and inlaid.

[Woodnut]

Welcome to the forum Gunny: I think once you look around you will have to say this is the best on the web.
I'm glad to see that you are into grip making. Those look great and the inlay looks fantastic.
If I can ever answer any questions for you, just give me a holler. Looks like you have a great gift of woodwork, which is a must to build grips. Keep up the good work.
Call some time if you would like to chat about grips. My number is in the web site below.

[GunnyGene]

Thanks. I've been doing serious woodworking for only about 12 years. I retired in 2000 to a few acres of forest in NE MS and was able to set up a decent small shop. I do mostly furniture, fancy boxes (including a few fitted pistol/revolver boxes ), etc. for fun and profit. Lots of leftovers from that and I hate to toss expensive woods, so I use scraps for small stuff like this.

I've enjoyed eyeballing your work. You're very good .

Here's a shot of the display I made for my den a few years ago that you might like. Cedar and persimmon.

[Woodnut]

Man! All I can say is WOW. That is beautiful. I am originally from Decatur County TN. Which should not be far from where you are in NE MS. If I have my bearings right you should be somewhere around Iuka or at least in the vacenity. I was born and raised on Kentucky Lake, or Tennessee River whichever you want to call it. I have done my share of fishing on Pick Wick Lake. Caught a lot of Small and Large mouth in that area.
I also built custom furniture for a long time then went into the smaller stuff because of age and strength. It takes a good man to build and install custom furniture, something I loved to do, just can't do it any more. Building the grips is really satisfieing to me and I take a lot of pride in doing it.
Mr. you have got it going your way. That is some awesome work. If you are ever in South MS, please look me up. I am just out of Gulfport toward Slidell, LA at exit 16 on I-10

[GunnyGene]

I'm kinda in the same position. Gettin up in years. Be 68 next month. Just finished a staircase redo for a cousin. Don't plan on doing that again! If you're interested, here's a where I put pics of some of what I've done. Feel free to poke around.

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j155/43gm94l/ .

Most of my work is in the Shop/Old Projects folder.

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ld%20projects/

Haven't been down to the Gulf Coast in a few years. Wife has some relatives in Gulfport. Need to get down to see them again, so I might take you up on that offer sometime. Nice meeting you .

PS: We've got about 30acres in Hamilton, MS. Just north of Columbus.

[Woodnut]

Here is a new set of grips I turned out today. They are made of Bone Corian and are full size with ambi cut. Anyone interested contact me. They are not on the web site yet. I probably won't put them up until after the gun show on Nov 3-4. The reason being is that I think they will sell at the show.
Thanks for looking.

[Woodnut]

Here is another set I have been working on for a while now. Just finished them up today. They were special ordered.
These have the SIS design with the badlands texture and was inked after putting the texture on, then a coat of finish was applied. This is a new technique for me. But turned out good I'm sure I will have more orders for these bad boys.
Let me know what you think.

[Woodnut]

Here is another set of Officers grips for a gentleman that wanted an EOD logo on them. He chose the KOA wood and they turned out good.

[GunnyGene]

Very nice grips Carl. Never had the chance to work with Koa, myself.

I did find some very nice Flame Box Elder in a tree I salvaged this past spring tho. Not quite as nice as this , but it was a welcome surprise. About 200bf. Should be dry by next fall.

[RunningOnMT]

I'm still trying to find someone who can make grips for my RIA 1911-A2, double stack. They need to be thin but it looks to me like not an impossible task for someone with the tools. Seems like you could just start out with regular 1911 grips, then mill off the back side along a straight line to match the contour of the wider mag well. There are tabs along one edge just below the thumb safety that complicate the job though.

Custom wood grips are available for the Para double stack but they wont fit the RIA which has a slightly different grip screw hole spacing. If anyone is willing to give this a try, please pm me.

[Woodnut]

Originally Posted by RunningOnMT

I'm still trying to find someone who can make grips for my RIA 1911-A2, double stack. They need to be thin but it looks to me like not an impossible task for someone with the tools. Seems like you could just start out with regular 1911 grips, then mill off the back side along a straight line to match the contour of the wider mag well. There are tabs along one edge just below the thumb safety that complicate the job though.

Custom wood grips are available for the Para double stack but they wont fit the RIA which has a slightly different grip screw hole spacing. If anyone is willing to give this a try, please pm me.

If I had the right tools to do it I would say yes I can help. But I just don't have the mill it would take to do this. I built 2 sets for the Para P14 and each time I really lost my but in labor, because of the intense work on the back side of the grip. I had to do all of this with a chisel and rasp and it took me almost a week on the first pair. Then I thought I would do a second pair faster, well I was wrong. So I came to the conclusion that there would be no more.
Wish I could help. If I were a young man I would buy a mill, because there is really a market for this type grip. But I'm so old I could never pay for such a machine.

[Woodnut]

Originally Posted by GunnyGene

Very nice grips Carl. Never had the chance to work with Koa, myself.

I did find some very nice Flame Box Elder in a tree I salvaged this past spring tho. Not quite as nice as this , but it was a welcome surprise. About 200bf. Should be dry by next fall.

That is some beautiful Elder, wanna share? LOL. That is some of the nicest I have seen. It would be nice to send it to someone that could stabilize it for you. I don't have a clue as to the charge for something like this, but think that if it is reasonable, it would be worth it.

[GunnyGene]

Originally Posted by Woodnut

That is some beautiful Elder, wanna share? LOL. That is some of the nicest I have seen. It would be nice to send it to someone that could stabilize it for you. I don't have a clue as to the charge for something like this, but think that if it is reasonable, it would be worth it.

Remind me next fall. Maybe we can work a deal. Sometimes the bright red colors fade out considerably as it dries, so at this point I don't know if any of it will be worth anything.

Btw, here's a site where might find some in the near term http://woodbarter.com/index.php . This is not a commercial site, but a forum where you can buy/sell privately.

[Woodnut]

That sounds good. I will try and remember to remind you.
Thanks.

[Woodnut]

Trying to get caught up for the Deer hunt. I did happen to make a picture. I usually forget to make until it is shipped, Then it is too late. These are made of bonded Ivory.
Enjoy!

[Woodnut]

More custom grips.