Curly Maple New Vaquero grips

[Love Life]

Go slow, check often, be prepared for a boo boo or two, lol. At the end of the day, they are yours. I love making revolver grips. It’s very therapeutic, and I love transforming a block into something nice looking and functional. With every set I make, it gets harder to spot the oopsies, lol.

[Walks]

Those are Handsome Grips, very well fitted.

I just finished My 1st set of grips in about 30yrs. Just Plain old Walnut, I like Darker Grips. Had to make these. The cheap plastic that they put on the New Vaquero are so thin, they feel like your holding the bare frame. They needed to be a lot thicker.

Will post pictures when the several coats of Tung Oil has dried.

[T-Bird]

I make knife handles from curly maple. I use an agent that is activated by heat called Aqua Fortis. It has been used on curly maple gun stocks for centuries. It gives a deep reddish brown that really pulls the contrast out of the grain in maple. It is notoriously hard to stain because of it's density. If you like that light look, it's all good! If you want to see how aqua fortis looks on maple, google it. You did a wonderful job fitting the slabs.

[Love Life]

Those are Handsome Grips, very well fitted.

I just finished My 1st set of grips in about 30yrs. Just Plain old Walnut, I like Darker Grips. Had to make these. The cheap plastic that they put on the New Vaquero are so thin, they feel like your holding the bare frame. They needed to be a lot thicker.

Will post pictures when the several coats of Tung Oil has dried.

That’s what led me to where I am now, lol. I bought the New Vaquero and it had really thin, poorly fitted grips from the factory. I ordered a set of grips and they were a little better, but still not thick enough. It was really a knuckle buster. So I made thicker grips. The gun feels better in hand to me and no more knuckle busting.

And here I am now. I have some walnut blanks and more maple I’ll play with next. As for density of maple, after making a set of desert ironwood grips for another single action, working the maple was a dream, lol.

[Michael J. Spangler]

That’s a bit dark. Seems like the natural sheen is gone. I’m going to Lowe’s this weekend and will pick up some stuff to try on Maple. I’ve seen a really nice set done with Waterlox that looked near perfect for color.

I’ve got curly walnut I can use for something darker, lol.

To answer OsteoDoc- I use ultra thin CA glue. It gives a nice clear, hard coat. The maple grips have 3 coats and I didn’t really polish them very high. I can take them to 2,000 grit and buff with wax and they’ll shine like glass. I started using CA glue after having a couple knife handles done with it, and really like it for durability and bringing out chatoyance.

That’s two fold. One part is that I really like a matte finish on my wood for my knife handles and guns. I just have a hate for glare. Probably from taking pictures of my knives.
Second part is that I used a photo box with just the right angle so get rid of any glare or shine.
Again habit from taking knife pics.
They did still have plenty of action in the grain in person.