Ruger New Vaquero grip making

[Wheelguns 1961]

Awesome! Those look great!

[DougGuy]

You can also see some oopsies on the back strap, lol.

I take a hard oak stick and cut the exact shape of the backstrap into it, complete with dowel holes, I use this to mount the panels on to work them, clamped in a vise, I never try to work bone with it screwed onto the real frame.

They look good!

[Love Life]

Definitely lesson learned!! The last grips I made were with a tracing, and I wanted to try on the frame this time. From what I understand, at Colt’s they fit the grips to the frame, then do final polish and blue. I may try that next time.

I am also interested in your oak blank. Do you just transfer a tracing to the wood, and cut it out to shape to mount the grips to?

[DougGuy]

I am also interested in your oak blank. Do you just transfer a tracing to the wood, and cut it out to shape to mount the grips to?

I knock the roll pin out of the grip frame, then clamp it to a blank of oak, trace around it with a sharp pencil and cut it out. Once I get the upper sharp corner and the flats described, cut, polished, then I drill the holes through the guns frame and I have a corresponding roll pin on the oak that matches. At this point I put the blank on the oak and I make a corner stop and glue it in place so the grip panels will go on and off in the same place every time.

The oak may be a tad smaller than the actual frame, so I can see the pencil lines on the grip panel. I then sand to the line, leaving the line, and I try and consume the line as I am polishing with finer grits. I fit it to the gun's frame prolly 2-3 dozen times, mark with a sharp pencil everywhere it will write, and carefully remove material until that pencil line is gone.









Ruger put this birdshead grip frame on (long long story LOL) so I didn't complain one bit about the mismatch between the cylinder frame and grip frame, I took it to a Bridgeport mill, and milled the grip frame to match so that my custom grips didn't have any whodunits (unsightly gaps) to regret. If you want to "melt" the grips to the metal like the Italians do, you have to machine the grip frame to a knife edge, so there is an almost undetectable joint where wood stops and steel starts.

[Love Life]

What you did with a machine, I did with files, lol. You either have to true up that junction or shape that area of the grips to fit.

[Love Life]

I fired 50 rds of Lyman 452423 over 9 grains of unique. No movement of the grips and nothing broke, lol. It feels really good in the hand and rolling is minimized. It points better for me too. Success!!! The middle finger is also moved back so no more knuckle busting either. Curse Ruger and it’s use of lady hand sized grips.

[Walks]

Gonna half to make a new set of wide enough grips to replace the crappy skinny cheap grips the Ruger seems to put on just about all SA's these days.

[Hogtamer]

Looks like good swamp medicine for pigs. Nice work Dick!

[Beerd]

That revolver and new grips look GREAT, but it must be hard shopping for pants with that inseam.

..

[Whiterabbit]

You must have seen the exact same thread on SA that I did, because I bought some blanks too!

Took me some time to get around to it, but mine also wound up on a vaquero. I came to the same conclusions you did: soft material, easy to work with. Way easier than hardwood! but steep cost, hopefully they hold up to use and abuse. I have high hopes.

Here are mine:

[RogerDat]

This is a most informative thread. Thanks for all the information. I like the cap and ball Remington but hate the grips, feels like I barely have anything to hold onto. Being able to browse the process has me thinking I might want to give making a meaty set of grips for one of those.

Can't really make the grips longer but even just a bit more thickness would be welcome.

[Love Life]

It’s easier than it looks. You get to set the thickness, taper, etc.

I’m working on a set of curly maple right now that is just beautiful.