Polished Silver Grips?

[crazyjennyblack]

Watched "The Quick and The Dead" last night, and noticed an 1875 Remington with polished silver grips. I want silver grips on a stainless or nickel SOMETHING in the worst way now!!! I think the shiny but simple look of the piece is absolutely incredible.

Does anyone know where I can find them? For me, the grips can be made out of just about anything silver-colored and able to polish to a shine. (they need a slobber smilie here)

 

[Texan Scott]

There are a few companies making aluminium grips. Alternatively, any decent silversmith can make a pair in .925 for you... around here, James Avery might be the people to ask. For what it'd cost, better put them on something nice.

 

[BADUNAME30]

If i'm not mistaken. Those grips were on a custom gun the 'kid' had in his shop when they were lookin for a gun for the 'preacher'.
I gotta agree with ya jenny. That style o' grip does indeed make for one handsome soot maker.
Although, if i were gonna go the expense o' havin a set made. I'd a least use german or 'nickle' silver if .925 weren't in the budget.

It holds a good polish for a long time and is far more forgiving than aluminum if it were to become neglected for any legth of time.

 

[crazyjennyblack]

I'm not sure I'd have the coin for .925, but German silver looks great. Pewter might also work, but it's a bit soft. I found 1911 grips made out of german silver, but sadly no revolvers. Has anyone seen any? Also, if one were to find a silversmith willing to do the work, how would they even begin to fit a hunk of silver to a gun without some kind of mold?

 

[unknwn]

A mold is exactly how it would be done.
You could buy pewter '73 & Vaquero grip sets in silver or gold tone at Brownells
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=...r__Vaquero/Product/SINGLE-ACTION-PEWTER-GRIPS
as recently as this Spring. The manufacturer is a company called All America.
I remember searching them out, and they had some different styles available (smooth,shiny silver?), but I haven't looked at them in a while because they didn't have a Bisley cut available for my Vaqueros.

 

[rcmodel]

The ones in the photo's in the OP look like polished aluminum to me.

rc

 

[unknwn]

You can polish aluminum up to a point that looks almost like chrome. The problem is that keeping it that way is excrutiating.
A durable clear coating demures that shine, and is really hard to remove after applied when you need to repolish due to knicks in the coating.

 

[rcmodel]

Silver is little better.

Ever had to polish the tarnished silver table service for 12 when you were a kid?

rc

 

[unknwn]

...and much heavier.
The problem with aluminum is that it's oxidation ( a white -salty- looking stuff) will lead to pitting and can promote undesirable reactions with dissimiliar metals.

 

[BADUNAME30]

And these above reasons are why i suggest german silver.
None-the-less, these grips would have to be formed by a 'smith' and hammered out. Thus they would be hollow and no heavier than a solid hank o' wood.
Most likely a costly endeavor no matter ya how ya slice it.

 

[Kitika]

I was looking at making a 925 grip frame for my colt walker just for something a little different but even buying silver at cost price it wasn't feasible and casting parts like that could take a fair bit of fitting, but 2 piece grips for a vaquero or colt could be done fairly light/hollowed out if you found the right shop to do the mold and casting work. I've got a spare set of vaquero grips I might see if I can do anything with them

 

[Madcap_Magician]

I saw a S&W Hand Ejector at a gun show the other weekend. The fellow had it on display, but wasn't selling. It had gorgeous silver grips with heavy engraving and gold inlay and onlay in a Mexican motif.

 

[St8LineGunsmith]

There was actually a functional purpose for using the silver grips other than the fact they were very pleasing to the eye the added weight of the silver grips balanced out the front heavy gun putting more weight in the hand instead of on the front end of the gun making it a little faster for the draw.
or so I have been told.
kind of the same principal behind balanced shotguns.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Somewhere in the last few months, I saw a colt repro that had been all gussied up with gold and silver plate. The grips were ivory looking though. It was sharp, but I figured not real practical.

 

[Jaymo]

Ya could always go with highly polished, clear anodized aluminum grips.

 

[gunner69]

Crazy Jenny, If you live close the the Mexican border you can remove the grips, and take them to a Mexican Silver Smith. Show him a drawing or picture of what you want. Those guys can do wonders and you can have any final fitting done in the U.S.

 

[crazyjennyblack]

A good thought, gunner69. However, I'm FAR closer to Canada than I am to Mexico. For those of you who have had silver work done, about how much does the labor of a good silversmith cost?

 

[Jaymo]

The easy way remove to remove the tarnish from silver (silver sulfate IIRC) is to use the baking soda/aluminum foril/boiling water method.
You make a bowl/pan from heavy duty, non-coated aluminum foil, and put baking soda in it.
Then, you put your silver item in it.
Then you pour boiling water in it (distilled is probably best).
It chemically converts the tarnish back into metallic silver.

I learned this from the shaving forums. It's used on silver plated vintage/antique safety razors to polish them without removing any silver.
Ya see, I have this Old Model Gillette open comb DE safety razor that I love to shave with, and it was tarnished. I wanted to polish it without wearing down the silver plating.