Do it yourself stippled grips!

[Babalouie]

Had fun today...decided to try my hand at stippling the grips on the STI and the M&P. I'm happy with the results!

First, I practiced on an AR Grip




Then worked on the M&P grip insert. I worked on the rear grip insert first.



Then my son decided he liked the round/dot stippling and came up with this.


Then I moved on to the STI.




All in all I'm very happy with the results and had a blast discovering how to do it. As far as grip goes there is just no comparison to how great they feel.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Looks interesting. How about a little information on how you did it and what tools are necessary?

 

[Babalouie]

I went to Lowes and bought a woodburning set for $13.xx. I had read a post that saying that you should round over the edge of the angled straight tip so that it doesn't melt in to the grip too far. I actually started with an old para mag base and that told me how fast the tip melts the material. Practicing on an AR grip I first used the angled tip and followed the checkering lines that ran straight up and down(first AR pic). I changed tips to a smaller straight tip and began to cut across the lines I had melted into the grip(second AR pic). It was much easier than I thought it would be. If you just keep randomly pressing the tip into the grip eventually you get a very uniform look to it. The iron, or whatever its called, gets unbelievably hot and almost instantly melts the grip material. On the STI I first used the angled tip (/) and followed the checkering lines on the diagonal kind of running it in one continuous line. I then changed to the smaller straight tip (l) and just touched the grip on an angle that followed the same angle of the lines I had just made. As I experimented it produced that sharkskin look...which is what I wanted.

On the M&P I switched to a round bit and with just a brief touch it would melt that little crater. My son really liked that look, and the M&P is what he shoots in Production USPSA, so he continued and did the rest of the M&P. After that I wanted to experiment more so I took one of the other M&P grip inserts and first used the round bit then used the smaller straight tip and cut across all of the little craters.

I really can't see how anyone can screw this up. If you make a mistake you just keep working with one of the bits. Today I went back to the AR grip and melted it all down and smoothed out the material...it look horrible. Thirty minutes later I had it looking awesome again. It really is quite easy. Let me tell you though, that iron gets really hot...I accidentally touch the shaft of it and heard my skin sizzle! Nasty hot, be careful.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Thank you for the instructions, I'm filing them away in case I wish to give it a try.

 

[hooks]

I saw something similar to this on the ar15 forum. Someone took a woodburner to their Glock.