Well I did it! (Faux Ivory grips)

[token tory]

Minor update on the progress.
USPS inform me the grips shipped today, Yippee!

 

[madcratebuilder]

Giraffe bone makes excellent grips and is affordable. Good looking bone.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

wow that really adds class to those revolvers. :thumbsup:
since I hunt and woods bum with my '58 and ROA I think I'll stick with factory wood though.

 

[Norinco]

Yeah, at the last gunshow I saw a company selling hunting knives and safari themed stuff. They had an entire giraffe femur that was scrimshawed and polished.

 

[token tory]

The grips arrived this morning. :thumbsup:
The good news is that they are a nice, well made product. Solid feeling, not at all "plasticky" & the pewter bear claws look really nice when matched to an identical one I found IRL & attached to the holster.

The bad news is that there is a little fitting problem when I try to attach them to the pistol. :shake:
Basically there is a point where they are just too narrow to fit the grip frame, even with the extra he leaves you for final fitting. I've sent him an e-mail with pics & we'll see where the process goes from here. :idunno:

 

[rabjr]

Yeah, I didn't really want to say much, I've ordered two sets from him for colts which required gluing a center piece and a lot of fitting. Thats fine if you don't mine it but the center piece wasn't high enough on one of the colts and could not be fitted unless I shimmed it. Your 58 shoulda just been two grip panels and no problem. I have to say for what I went through, it was well worth the 49' being done by Collin's Craft. I put the percussion cylinder on it for the pic but it lives close by with a Kirst Cylinder on it. I know it's just a pop gun but it's better than nothing in a pinch. :wink:

 

[token tory]

I don't mind the hand work. Being a tinker by nature it seemed like a good way to while away a few hours sanding & polishing to fit.

The problem is I'd have to add material, which I can't do to make the grip panels fit the grip frame.

Now he does mention right up front that the Rem frames vary more than any other & in fact he lists no less than 11 different versions for the 1858 Remington.

If it'd been too much material I'd have been fine with it as they are sold as semi finished, I'm just a little put off that even with a template he let the panels go out when they had a bad dimension. We'll see how well he does as the process continues. He offers to replace any grip that doesn't fit (provided it is unaltered by the customer)as long as you supply a template, which I did.

 

[rabjr]

Right, I had a 5 1/2" barreled Pietta Remmy and ordered a set of grips from him for it, I remember sending him a copy of a trace of the frame. I had decided to sell the gun just after receiving the grips of which I never tried to fit. Sold it here to a member infact from the Classifieds with that pair of Ivory grips. I have no idea who or if those grips were ever fitted to it as it was about two years ago.

 

[nkbj]

Do searches for Mammoth Ivory, there are companys that just walk the Tundra when they can and find it sticking out of the ground, some is found that way anyway.

Read once a long time ago that when the 1917-1918 revolution hit Russia it closed down the ivory mining that was the main source of the worlds commercial stock. Since then have read accounts of the big deposits of bones, tusks in some places around northeastern Asia and northwestern North America. It's a real head scratcher.

 

[Norinco]

Are there any grips made out of tar pit recovered mammoth ivory from southwest US? I'd think it would have a nice patina to it.

 

[rabjr]

Not sure it's even legal to take anything from there. But Ebay used to be full of it, you can buy boxes of scrap Ivory left over from businesses using it to make stuff. I've gotted a lot of good pieces cheap this way that makes good inlays, thumb pieces etc. Also if you google Mammoth Ivory you come up with all kinds of people selling pieces to full tusks and teeth which make stunning knife slabs.

 

[Norinco]

You can't take it from federally owned parks. Those taken ex ante facto would be legal. Those taken from tar pits or digs on private property would be legal too.

 

[rabjr]

Ok, I don't know then. It is used quite a bit with knife makers so if so, you'll probably see some used on knives.

 

[token tory]

Updated again.
As he only operates the business at weekends I let the unanswered e-mail ride till this Monday, figuring to be fair he may well reply to outstanding issues after I've given up & logged off.
So far no response at all. :idunno:
I've sent a second separate e-mail (the original was part of an ongoing correspondence) to see if that gains his attention.
Unfortunately this is not looking too promising at this point. :shake:

 

[rabjr]

Hmm, I just went to his site which has changed considerably since I bought my grips from him I think about two years ago if memery serves. I don't know, he had a much smaller inventory and didn't offer half of what he is showing now. I had actually contacted him about molding a coiled snake like Clint Eastwood had in his speggetti westerns and he at that time did not offer it but it was something he wanted to make in the future. We had a nice Correspondence that lasted quite a few emails at the time and I settled for two Colt aged Ivory, one came through regular white Ivory and as I said in an earlier post did not quite fit right. He did offer to replace the white Ivory with an Aged one as long as the grip was untouched when I brought it to his attention. I elected to just keep it and later found it didn't fit right when I went to fit it, oh well. And like I said I ordered a set for the Remmy of which I never fitted before selling it.

Hopefully he hasn't gotten to big to the point he don't care. But Collins Craft hands down makes a better product. He has "kits" you can fit yourself or have him fit to your grip frame at a very reasonable price.

 

[token tory]

Update.
I received an e-mail from "Dave" at Tombstone.
He apologizes for the delay in replying & has offered to re-make a set of the grips that will fit better. He also made some helpful suggestions as to how we could co-operate to make the project a success.

He mentioned he will be unavailable for a couple of weeks, due to a business trip & assured me that he'd make things right.

I've mailed the defective grips & a new template to him & we'll see how things turn out as the project progresses. :hmm:

 

[rabjr]

:thumbsup:

 

[token tory]

As promised the latest update.
I got a confirmation that the replacement grips shipped yesterday. This may mean that he did the redo before he left on his trip to Alaska.
More to come when they arrive here. :grin:

 

[token tory]

The replacements arrived this morning.

He seems to have used a different pattern, based on the info I sent him, & made the cast a little thicker as well. Checking the semi-finished grip against the existing wood grips he seems to have done a great job of giving me just enough extra all round without making it unduly time-consuming to final fit. :thumbsup:

I made the locating pin holes so I could lay the grips on the grip frame & mark where I'll need to remove excess to get a fitted grip. The material is much softer to work than I imagined, given how solid it feels, this may only take a short while after all. :v

I may actually leave a little extra thickness in the panels if I can make it look "right" at the curved section where the top/front of the grip panels is as I like the feel with the extra "meat" in that area. I'm back to 12 hours of R/O duty Monday so I'll take them & the tools with me & do the "20 minutes" of finishing work.

I'll post pics of the fit as it proceeds, but so far it's looking good as he was able to pick a good fitting profile from his selection.

 

[token tory]

Well it was hotter than I thought at the range so all I did was the roughing out of the new grips & most of the "grunt work" of rough shaping them.
With the temps at 103 :surrender: I waited till I got back home & the temps dropped to a more reasonable level before finishing up.

Grips as received. Lots of spare material to allow good fitting. There was lots spare so it was all turned into a talcum powder fine dust by the time I was done. I suggest you do this outside rather than incur the wrath of SWMBO!

Compared to the originals from the factory there is more depth as well as room to custom fit to your individual grip frame. I actually did not thin them as much as the originals. I left more thickness at the wrist & did the fitting by working the edges. I liked the "feel" of the fuller top end, I guess I have Colt Hands :rotf:

The taped down abrasive, as suggested in the directions that come with the grips. You can see some of the sanding dust, this is about 1/10 th of the total.
Something I did that is not in the instructions was to cover the medallions with tape before sanding & polishing. I'm actually surprised he didn't mention this as the instructions are very complete in the other points.

Final sanding & polish, the errors in fitting are mine, not Tombstones. I had plenty to work with but got a little too enthusiastic. I left a little texture, but could have gone totally smooth. I just found I rather liked the rustic not-quite machine-made look :youcrazy:

I lucked out & found a matching medallion to fit to the holster, a second one went onto my “possibles bag” as well so I have a matching set.

Dave at Tombstone took good care of me & I recommend him to anyone wanting to try this. I will caution you that it is your (& my) fitting abilities that determine the inletting though.
He quotes time to fit as "about 20 minutes", in reality I'd say more like 3~4 hours for the first set including final polishing.