New Ivory (faux) Grips For My Ruger BlackHawk CarryHawk

[Viper1357]

Last week while rehabbing from a foot injury and not any place to go due to this Covid issue I decided to make a set of custom ivory (faux) grips for my Ruger BlackHawk CarryHawk .45 cal. I have another thread on this newer acquisition pertaining to issues and resolutions, but this is neither and rather just a cool fun project I wanted to do to change up the CarryHawk's mostly dark looking persona.

It came with a very nice set of black micarta (birdshead style) grips, but after making custom faux ivory grips for my Cimarron SAA (Doc H tribute project) I've grown fond of ivory looking grips. I had searched around the internet for (thicker) faux ivory material for suitable replacement grips, and finally found "Alternative Ivory col.849/TM" from Masecraft Supply Co. which turned out to be very affordable and realistic looking. So now I can have it in all black, or a little ivory style softer look.

Here's the vid (about 7 mins)





Also some pics of it...

 

[Tallball]

Great job!

They look terrific.

 

[silvermane_1]

Nice job there Viper1357, although there are legit sources for real ivory if you ever wanted to make real ivory grips.

 

[Obturation]

Looks good, seeing your grip work makes me want to try it out myself (I have a freedom arms with deformed pachmayr grips, no premade grips available and nice grips are hundreds of dollars ++). Hope you recover soon and you get that thing to the range.

 

[Viper1357]

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

Obturation: Please do make yourself a set. If you go to youtube via my vid link you can see a couple other vids I made on grips. They are not exactly tutorials but I show everything I do in making a set. The most important part is taking your time and patience. Just be sure to get proper sized thickness material of your choice so if you make any mistakes early on in shaping you have a little cushion for final shaping. You're right about the cost of some of the after market grips costing a fortune, but when it takes me between 14-16 hours over 4 days to make my own I guess mine are expensive as well. But typically I have a lot more time than money.

 

[Zerodefect]

Nice work.

It's $77 on Amazon for 3/8" slab. I think I'll practice with some scrap hardwoods first. Lol.

 

[Viper1357]

Nice work.

It's $77 on Amazon for 3/8" slab. I think I'll practice with some scrap hardwoods first. Lol.

Check out Masecraft Supply Co. The stuff I used for a 7" x 7" x 3/8" was like $30 w/shipping, and the 7" x 7" x 1/2" was around $35 w/shipping.

 

[Zerodefect]

Thanks. I'll check them out.

Seems like custom grips are allways a hair off. Would like to try larger grips for a jframe and 1911.

 

[Gumby0961]

nicely done!

 

[CraigC]

That turned out real nice!

 

[BobWright]

You say "Time to dry and polish them." Are you wet sanding?

Bob Wright

 

[Viper1357]

You say "Time to dry and polish them." Are you wet sanding?
Bob Wright

Yes but only on final finishing going up the grits from 400 - 3000/3500. When I first started making knife and handgun scales/grips (and other jewelry things) out of polys like Acrylic, Juma, Kirinite, Raffir, G10, C-Tek, Micarta, and finally this new Polyester Alternative Ivory, I found that dry sanding the higher grits takes longer and you can't see the fine scratches that may have been left over from the previous grits.

The finer the grit I've found fills the paper up almost instantly with material rendering it ineffective until you rinse it off with water, and then you're basically wet sanding from there unless you have multiple dry pieces to use. Also when the material surface is dry sanded especially with the higher grits you can't actually see if you've gotten the last grits surface cleared enough. So it dawned on me after my first couple sets I made that either having a large pail of water or just letting the water trickle from the spigot in the laundry tub (my high class finishing area..lol) using the water keeps the paper somewhat self cleaning, as well as the material surface. Also the water seems to act as a lubrication between the grit and material surface, thus I can see just how polished (or consistent) the surface is getting from each grit really easily as the smoother it is the shinier it looks, meaning less fine scratches or at least quicker to see as you're sanding. It's really a long and tedious process by hand (no buffer) but with these finer types of materials they show scratches fairly easily unless you get into some with really busy texture/color patterns.

So sorry for the long answer and there are probably better ways to do it, but in a weird way I enjoy doing them like that. Someday I'd like to improve my work area though, as I stand up over a dryer or laundry tub for many hours doing this. I always tell myself after each project that this was the last one so don't bother... Well that was about 20 projects or so now in two different houses since we moved a few years back... I also use the same methods for Coin Ring and Spoon Ring Jewelry I also spend a lot more time making, but for shorter durations.

 

[Kleanbore]

Nice, and the step by step post is appreciated.

 

[bannockburn]

Viper1357

I admire greatly your creative talents especially as it pertains to making handgun grips! Please keep up the great work and continue posting your latest accomplishments!

 

[Viper1357]

Thanks again guys, and honestly I've been inspired and learned from many others sharing here on THR, so I'm just sharing back.

 

[shootstraight57]

Last week while rehabbing from a foot injury and not any place to go due to this Covid issue I decided to make a set of custom ivory (faux) grips for my Ruger BlackHawk CarryHawk .45 cal. I have another thread on this newer acquisition pertaining to issues and resolutions, but this is neither and rather just a cool fun project I wanted to do to change up the CarryHawk's mostly dark looking persona.

It came with a very nice set of black micarta (birdshead style) grips, but after making custom faux ivory grips for my Cimarron SAA (Doc H tribute project) I've grown fond of ivory looking grips. I had searched around the internet for (thicker) faux ivory material for suitable replacement grips, and finally found "Alternative Ivory col.849/TM" from Masecraft Supply Co. which turned out to be very affordable and realistic looking. So now I can have it in all black, or a little ivory style softer look.

Here's the vid (about 7 mins)





Also some pics of it...

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I see you put a Hi Viz sight on the front! How well is it holding up? The reason I ask is that I replaced my front sight on my Ruger Bisley .45 / .45LC with a Hi Viz sight. The information I read said not to be used on the .45LC. Now I don't know what the difference would? I haven't shot my revolver since replacing the front sight and that is the reason for my question.

 

[Olon]

Last week while rehabbing from a foot injury and not any place to go due to this Covid issue I decided to make a set of custom ivory (faux) grips for my Ruger BlackHawk CarryHawk .45 cal. I have another thread on this newer acquisition pertaining to issues and resolutions, but this is neither and rather just a cool fun project I wanted to do to change up the CarryHawk's mostly dark looking persona.

It came with a very nice set of black micarta (birdshead style) grips, but after making custom faux ivory grips for my Cimarron SAA (Doc H tribute project) I've grown fond of ivory looking grips. I had searched around the internet for (thicker) faux ivory material for suitable replacement grips, and finally found "Alternative Ivory col.849/TM" from Masecraft Supply Co. which turned out to be very affordable and realistic looking. So now I can have it in all black, or a little ivory style softer look.

Here's the vid (about 7 mins)





Also some pics of it...

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Well done, they look great!

 

[Viper1357]

I see you put a Hi Viz sight on the front! How well is it holding up? The reason I ask is that I replaced my front sight on my Ruger Bisley .45 / .45LC with a Hi Viz sight. The information I read said not to be used on the .45LC. Now I don't know what the difference would? I haven't shot my revolver since replacing the front sight and that is the reason for my question.

I also haven't shot mine as of yet so I can't speak to how it's holding up other than to say currently it's just fine.

I also read somewhere about not using the Hi-Viz on .45LC, but had assumed (shouldn't but I do) it was more about longer barrel length and front sight height, but I could be completely wrong, just assumed as I said. Why I went with it anyway is it's the same height as the (odd) Big Dot front sight the factory chose to use for this configuration and barrel length. So, it would seem that the Hi-Viz it will work on this configuration if it's the same height as the factory Big Dot? I have no doubt I'll find out when I shoot it, but until then I'm at least slightly confident it will work out for my use anyway.

 

[Catman42]

i really like your work and am going to ask a question and one tip. will the false ivory take a stain like leather dye stain which is the best for gun stocks, to make it look like old ivory or bone? also when you are done polishing using your good method final polish it by hand with a soft flannel cotton cloth with brownells 5 f polish. it will go even to a next level.

 

[shootstraight57]

I also haven't shot mine as of yet so I can't speak to how it's holding up other than to say currently it's just fine.

I also read somewhere about not using the Hi-Viz on .45LC, but had assumed (shouldn't but I do) it was more about longer barrel length and front sight height, but I could be completely wrong, just assumed as I said. Why I went with it anyway is it's the same height as the (odd) Big Dot front sight the factory chose to use for this configuration and barrel length. So, it would seem that the Hi-Viz it will work on this configuration if it's the same height as the factory Big Dot? I have no doubt I'll find out when I shoot it, but until then I'm at least slightly confident it will work out for my use anyway.

I always thought that the Hi Viz sight would break or the fibre rod would break using the .45LC. Well time will tell, as soon as they open the ranges up here I am planning to go try it. Thanks for the picture and the video.

 

[shoebox1.1]

You sir are a craftsman and hats off to you! Well done! Very very nice!

 

[Viper1357]

i really like your work and am going to ask a question and one tip. will the false ivory take a stain like leather dye stain which is the best for gun stocks, to make it look like old ivory or bone? also when you are done polishing using your good method final polish it by hand with a soft flannel cotton cloth with brownells 5 f polish. it will go even to a next level.

That's a good question that's won you a long answer that I can't say for sure, but I'll share something that I experienced they may tell you if it's possible to stain or not.

I understand this particular Alternative Ivory material is a polyester resin blend, but no real idea if that's stain-able the way you've asked. That said I had an experience that may help. Some time after I had finished and mounted the grips I received a brand new just made custom black holster for it. It was a crazy tight fit that required all kinds of working it with the gun, odd items wedged in here and there etc. Well anyway, when I was at first trying to fit/force the gun in it there was a lot of hand activity inside and outside the holster and outside of the whole gun. After about 5 mins or so I noticed my new Alt Ivory grips had black lines and smudges all over to the point of looking like grey/black antiquing or just dirty black accents so-to-speak. I didn't worry too much until I realized I couldn't clean it off with any liquid or paste cleaner I tried to use. So realizing the holster guy didn't seal the black inside the holster kinda pizzed me off a bit. Of course I had to gone and make white grips, right?... lol

So anyway, after I got the holster to fit I cleaned out and sealed the inside of it where the black dye had come from to stain the grips, and I had to actually re sand both grips from #600 grit up to #3000 again to remove the black stains. Now that tells me to some degree they are stainable by leather dye, but how consistent or controllable is anyone's guess until you give it a try I believe.
But yeah, another story I wouldn't have just shared until you asked that question.

 

[Catman42]

thanks. i made a knife handle out of pure hard bone a few year back i polished them so they could get no better. then i stained them with lether die and they took on the look of granite. a couple of guys asked me, where did you get the granite to make to make those handles. so i though i could do the same thing with the false ivory if it has a grain.

 

[Viper1357]

Yes, it does have a grain. It's faint to the eye, but as you move it around different light sources you can see it.
Here's a pic of the polished finished grips I messed around with contrast and color settings to try and show the grain.

 

[Electricmo]

Would that material take a tea or coffee stain very well?jj