Homemade grips for '58 Remington

[moptop]

I wasn't sure of where I should post this so I hope I got in the right spot.

I resently came across a post where someone used polymer based oven-cured craft clay to make a set of grips for a revolver. I had been wanting a set of ivory-white or pearl-white for my '58 Rem but put it on the back burner when I started pricing them. So when I saw this post the brain wheels started turning and thought I'd give it a try. This is how I went about it.

Now in reading this post the first thing that jumped out at me was the "large amount of sanding" that was involved in the process. This person made his by making a cardboard template of the grip frame and then forming them by hand which was the reason for all the hand sanding to shape. I thought that there had to be an easier way to form the grip to get it closer to the finished shape.

Here's what I did......I got some plaster of paris and made a mould of the orginal grip panels. I sprayed the panels with WD40 to keep the plaster from sticking when it came time to remove them. It worked great but you have to let the plaster dry totally before pulling the panels out. Make sure you push the panels into the plaster deep enough to get a nice clean outside edge. It only takes 10 to 15 minutes for the plaster to harden so you have to work fast from the time you add the water to the time you pour it into whatever container your using to make your mould and get your panels inserted. Learned this on the first try.

Next...I used bath powder as a parting agent, lightly dusting the inside of the mould before putting in the clay. When pushing the clay into the mould, you have to kinda roll it in, starting from one side to the other as to keep it from trapping air in between the clay and the mould.

Once I had the clay in the mould I used a metal straight edge to cut the excess clay off and level out the back of the grip. I carefully removed the clay from the mould and ended up with a perfect copy of my original. The neat part about doing it this way is once you have the mould made, you can make as many sets as wish in different colors and patterns. Once cured as per the clays instructions, you can sand (not much really) and drill as needed for final shaping and hardware instalation. I also made a set in a translucent pearl for my Single Six. They turned out nice as well.

Just thought I'd share this little project's info. Maybe this will help someone in making their own personal designs.

[John Allen]

This is a neat idea. Could you have used plastic wrap on the grips to keep the plaster from sticking? I am going to try this over winter just for fun.

[theperfessor]

Very attractive end result! Nice job.

[RoyEllis]

Wonderful work!!! Now that you have your mold-making squared away, look at coating the plaster cavities with an epoxy sealer (Devcon 2 ton works well) then you can use a suitable mold release in the cavity and make grips with on of the many pourable casting resins that are clear but can be dyed any color you want, or you can pour the 1st thin layer clear then as it gets firm you can insert a coin, medallion etc and pour the color backing for a one-off custom grip. Just a thing or 2 I've learned from some knife-making buddies.

[lathesmith]

Very creative, thanks for sharing. That's a great way to give the ol' '58 a nice custom touch!

lathesmith

[moptop]

Roy, thanks for the tip on a sealer on the moulds. I've wanted to try making some using casting resin and contemplated on buying some a latex mould making kit for resin use but they're kinda expensive just to use on an "experiment", so to speak.

Lathesmith, thanks for the cudos! I've always enjoyed the "build it or make it myself" projects.