Ruger New Vaquero grip making

[Love Life]

Once again, there I was, larger than life. I wanted to make a set of grips for my Ruger New Vaquero. I'm partial to elephant ivory, but I'm saving my last bit for a rainy day. That being said, a new material called Resin Ivory+S is all the buzz right now as "THE" imitation ivory to have.

So I ordered some to see what all the buzz was about. Well, it's all that and a bag of chips!! It is the same weight as ivory, and is even grippy when wet like ivory. It has pretty good grain, and has distinct "Shreger lines". Honestly, it'd be easy to pass this stuff off as real ivory. It's that good. It is softer than Ivory though when working the material. It saws and sands/files well. It can even be cut down with a chisel.

This first picture is of a roughed out grip panel, and a blank block to see where I started from. I cut the panel out with a coping saw, and did all the rough shaping with files and sandpaper. The grips are sitting on the most important thing I have for grip making...a granite surface plate:

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Ever wonder why you can see light between your grips and the frame? It's because the grip frame, back of the grips, or both aren't flat. In the case of the Ruger, the grip frame needed a bit of uniforming to knock off the high spots. A file, layout fluid (or a giant permanent marker), masking tape, and sandpaper on a block will get you where you need to be. Careful masking, and being careful with a file will net you a flat(er) grip frame surface without destroying the visible bluing. I also true up the junction between the grip frame and revolver frame to achieve a no light showing fit at the corner. Ensure you remove the locator pin with a roll punch. It comes out left to right as you are looking down the sites. I'm looking for 90% clean up:

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Pictures 4 and 5 show the left grip panel (marked with an L) after roughing it out with the coping saw (shown whole blank in picture one) and the trusty surface plate with a sheet of 120 grit paper on it and a whole mess of dust. To get flat surfaces, you need flat surfaces, lol. The back of the grips are trued up on every grit of paper I move to until I hit 400 grit. Remember, I am making these without power tools...well except for the cordless drill...:

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Pictures 6,7, and 8 show the corner fit I'm looking for. If the grip frame to revolver frame isn't flush, you'll end up with light showing between the frame and grips. That offends me. When I make grips for a single action, I always get the corner right first. That is one of the most important parts to me. The blue taped thing is an oak block I trued up on all sides on the surface plate and gives me a place to clamp on the opposite side.:
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Picture 9 shows how to get the locater pin hole correct for drilling. With the grips clamped firmly in place I use a TRANSFER punch to get my correct hole location for drilling. This punch fit perfect, however if you have a hole where the punch is just a bit wiggly, put a wrap or two of tape around the punch to center it in the hole. Picture 10 is the no light showing fit I want of the grips to the frame. The frame was trued up with a file and permanent marker to relieve all high spots, and the back of the grips were trued up on a surface plate. Flat+flat=no light. Also, the locater pin has been re-installed in the grip frame and the pin holes drilled. To do this without a drill press is pretty easy. Just buy a set of drill depth stops at your local Lowes or Home Depot. This allows you to get the right depth without drilling to far. For the initial hole drilling, use a Bradford point bit for a flat bottom hole. Then I use successively larger bits until I get the right size hole. This is achieved by measuring the locater pin diameter. The hole depth is figured out by using a depth gauge on the pin and frame...or you can just put the stop collar on the bit and push it against the frame and pin and lock it in...:

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[Love Life]

Some more shots of the corner fit. There is no light showing. The discoloration near the corner is from permanent marker, lol. The discoloration on the frame is from the grip dust mixing with the adhesive from the blue tape. It's a bit hot in my garage, lol. It'll all clean off once the grips are done. The next steps are to remove a metric buttload of material to profile and finish fitting the grips to the frame.

[DougGuy]

Cool! Thanks for posting. I really like animal bone, a whole species doesn't have to be "under the gun" to have a renewable supply, it is pretty on it's own but yeah it falls short of real ivory. I will have to give this some thought, where did you get the blanks?

Have you thought of a blind screw on one side? drill a hole and sink an escutcheon into the hole with superglue and one panel will be all smooth and nice with no hole, like the one piece ivory grips you see on an old Colt SAA.

[Love Life]

Cool! Thanks for posting. I really like animal bone, a whole species doesn't have to be "under the gun" to have a renewable supply, it is pretty on it's own but yeah it falls short of real ivory. I will have to give this some thought, where did you get the blanks?

Have you thought of a blind screw on one side? drill a hole and sink an escutcheon into the hole with superglue and one panel will be all smooth and nice with no hole, like the one piece ivory grips you see on an old Colt SAA.

The blanks came from Guitar Parts. They are legit!! I'm telling you, if I were to put these in your hands, you'd have a hard time telling they're not real ivory. Same weight, and most importantly, the same feel. They feel like ivory and best of all are tacky like ivory when damp or wet.

As for the blind hole, not really my thing. They look like half finished grips to me. I've just never been a fan. What I do is install the escutcheon when I get close to final finished width, and then work the rest of the grips. Gives a nice and seamless fit of the escutcheon. Not to deep in the grips, and not standing proud.

[DougGuy]

What I do is install the escutcheon when I get close to final finished width, and then work the rest of the grips. Gives a nice and seamless fit of the escutcheon. Not to deep in the grips, and not standing proud.

I do that too! The escutcheon is installed a tad bit proud, then sanded and filed flush with the grip panel and polished when the panel is polished. I like to place the head of the screw even or only slightly below the surface of the grip.

[DougGuy]

Guitar Parts & More sells some 3/4" thick S grade blanks, these are expensive but at 3/4" thick I can split them and have two blanks 3/8" thick, minus the thickness of the saw cut. For gunfighter style grips, I would want a thin panel, finished at not much more than 1/4" in thickness. This would work for me, I could do two revolvers for $40 each.

https://guitarpartsandmore.com/mainCategory.php?Resin-Ivory-trade-Gun-Grip-Blanks-58

[Love Life]

If you want I can mail you some smaller scraps to play with to get a feel for the material. Small 1 inch pieces you can sand on and examine the grain.

I like my grips fat so the escutcheon and screw usually end up a tad below flush unless I go with a longer grip screw. I use brass escutcheons that are .200 tall and .25 in diameter. The blanks I started with are .590 thick each. Lots of elbow grease!!

[DougGuy]

I have a bunch of antlers and bone here, I made quite a few grips, and hundreds of nuts for guitars over many years of guitar repair. I worked all kinds of bone, and a boatload of antler, and some ivory as well.

Thanks for the offer tho, it is appreciated.

[Walks]

That's really cool, I'm making a seat of Walnut panels for my new Vaquero. I HATE the skinny gamer grips that came on it. Need Something to fill a real man sized hand.

Have more Walnut, maybe I'll start over.

[Love Life]

That's really cool, I'm making a seat of Walnut panels for my new Vaquero. I HATE the skinny gamer grips that came on it. Need Something to fill a real man sized hand.

Have more Walnut, maybe I'll start over.

I like walnut. It’s classy and just feels right. If you want you can post your progress here too. I always like to see people’s methods. I also understand about the gamer grips, lol. I hate them. They are to thin.

I started out making grips with scrap pine. Easy to work with and get the steps down. Using a belt sander I can turn out a well fitted pair of grips in a day. Using just elbow grease takes a couple of days doing a little here and a little there.

I got tired of paying top dollar for grips, and they weren’t perfect, or I’d have to send a gun off to have them fitted and wait forever plus pay out the backside. After making several sets of grips I’ve come to learn some things, and will never pay top dollar to a grip maker again. I can order the material I want, with the figure I want, and fit them to my hand.

[Love Life]

Progress report

The first picture is of a transfer punch pushed through the grip screw hole to check alignment:

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The next pictures are of the gun clamped to the table and how I mark the grips for material removal. It's not the best method of clamping, but it works, lol. I use a cherry block to support the trigger guard, and an oak block to spread pressure for the top of the clamp. You can see in the 1st picture where the material chipped out when drilling the hole for the escutcheon, but no worry, I have .190 of material to remove and it'll clean right up!

The second picture is how I mark the grips for material removal. Just sand to the lines, lol. Once completed each grip panel will be .4 thick at the bottoms and taper up towards the frame.:

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This last photo shows the left grip panel about 85% done. I've done initial profiling and sanded closer to the frame. I flipped the gun at this point and began to work on the right grip panel. Once again, you can see the lines of where I'll remove material. About this point in time I got tired of working on them so called it quits. That's my rule. Once I start to get tired of it I walk away.

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[Hickory]

Looking good!
It is said that the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time.

[Love Life]

I’m m finally to the point where I can move up from 80 grit paper, lol. All I need to figure out now is how much bevel I want going to the front strap. Right now the back strap has minimal bevel and gives a nice, firm grip with much more surface area in contact with the palm. So much better than the factory grips and the custom “ larger” grips I’ve purchased. Skinny grips on a revolver are like skinny jeans on a guy...wrong.

[Love Life]

More progress

At this point I am done shaping the left grip panel. In the first photo I tried to catch the grain. The second photo shows the end grain, or Shreger lines. The grip is currently finished to 400 grit. I'm going to finish the other panel to 400 and see how I like the feel. This stuff will polish up super shiny up to 2,000 grit but I'm not sure I want to go that high.

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My grip contouring jig is a 1/2 inch square piece of wood with double sided tape. 3M 10 lb capacity tape.

[Love Life]

Progress report

At this time I'm about done. There are some minor tweaks I might make to the fit, but in reality, probably not. I'll just true up the butt and round the corners there. The grips are currently on the revolver with bedding compound around the alignment pin for a perfect snap on fit.

This first picture is of my high speed, low drag grip holder for contouring. Its a half inch square piece of wood with 3M 10 lb double sided tape to hold it on. You can also see my catch bin for wet sanding drips and my super comfortable flip flops:

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The next photo shows the "Shreger Lines" on the butt of the grips:

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The next photos show the general fit. You can see a couple places where the material is still a tad high and I may or may not fix that. In these photos the grips have been wet sanded to 600 grit.

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You can also see some oopsies on the back strap, lol. The 80 grit paper has no mercy when it breaks through the blue masking tape, lol. I wasn't to concerned about it as the revolver already has bare metal showing on other places from holster wear and use. If I want, now I can sand the grips to the frame for the perfect-est fit and then send the frame off for a reblue. I can also rust blue it.

Some thoughts on the material: It works well. It sands pretty well and is an easy material to work. Once you get to the 320 grit, you want to start wet sanding because it'll clog the paper up fast. Also, it clogs up files really fast. I used a lot of 80 grit for shaping and contouring. I wish I had switched to 120 grit a tad sooner as it take a lot of effort to remove the 80 grit scratches, lol.

The material did chip around the escutcheon hole when drilling, so keep that in mind. Drill the hole first and then contour to shape. The blanks started at .590 thick, and finished at .400 at the thickest part. Lots of elbow grease required, lol. The grain looks nice and aren't as yellow as they look in the photos. At a 600 grit finish, they are smooth, but not slippery. Plus this material get slightly tacky feeling when wet or damp.

As for final finish I may do ultra thin super glue and then hand buff to a shine, or I might just hit it with some renaissance wax and buff it to a shine. I'm not sure which yet. I'll have to experiment on a scrap piece.

All in all a fun project.

[MrWolf]

Very nice job. Something to think about for me to make a grip that won't "twist" as much for me. Nerve damage in last three fingers of right hand.

[Love Life]

Very nice job. Something to think about for me to make a grip that won't "twist" as much for me. Nerve damage in last three fingers of right hand.

I’ll be shooting the gun this week to see how they feel. The thicker grips are a huge change in comfort in holding the revolver for me. It doesn’t feel like I’m holding on to something to skinny. I can get all 3 fingers comfortably on the grips or I can still tuck my pinky. The fatter and flatter back strap has moved my knuckle back from the trigger guard as well.

Just holding the gun and aiming, these grips give me a much better point and change the whole balance of the gun. The skinny factory grips were to narrow for me. Of course I also find the Beretta M9 grip comfortable as well and hate thin grips on a 1911, lol.

If you want I can send these to you to borrow/try on and shoot with to see if the thicker grip is what you need/want.

[Love Life]

The grips are pretty much done. I did a slight clean up of the action and trigger job before final reassembly. I'll be shooting this week with full power 45 colt loads, an as long as the grips still feel good in the hand, then I'll call it done.

He are the grips mounted on the gun:

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Just enough white and just enough cream color. These were finished to 600 grit and waxed with renaissance wax. They are still very grippy at this level of finish, but not rough. This material is more grippy when wet or damp. It does not feel like a resin at all. I have a couple more sets of blanks coming to make grips for a couple more of my revolvers. I'll be making a set of "one piece" grips (actually 3 pieces glued together) my Uberti. If that goes well I'll make a set for my Colt. Plus I have a couple of friends who want me to make them a set fit to their hands as they have the same problem with skinny grips that I do.

As an added bonus, this last picture is of my super awesome LLA lubed bullet drying box.

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[jmort]

Way beyond my skill set
Nice work
Really like the New Vaqueros
Well balanced and perfect fit for me

[Love Life]

Cocking the hammer is much smoother and the trigger pull is reduced. Gun passes all safety checks. I have a SBH hammer, hammer shims, and trigger shims on the way. Once those are installed the gun will be set up perfect for me. I am keeping the factory springs in so reliability is not sacrificed.

At the end what I want is a good, reliable revolver that is smooth.

[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.

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Guns/20190704_181752_zpsuvofyi0l.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Guns/20190704_181752_zpsuvofyi0l.jpg.html)

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Guns/20190704_181741_zps7kxkhw9v.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Guns/20190704_181741_zps7kxkhw9v.jpg.html)

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01517_zpsf2299cee.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01517_zpsf2299cee.jpg.html)

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01496_zps505589e9.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01496_zps505589e9.jpg.html)

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.

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01302_zps27089154.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01302_zps27089154.jpg.html)

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/20130314_165646_zps10ba9dbe.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/20130314_165646_zps10ba9dbe.jpg.html)

[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]

https://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01496_zps505589e9.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Birdshead%20Vaquero/DSC01496_zps505589e9.jpg.html)


That revolver and new grips look GREAT, but it must be hard shopping for pants with that inseam. :bigsmyl2:

..

[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:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247160&d=1566593602
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247161&d=1566593612
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247162&d=1566593621
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247163&d=1566593630

[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.