How is this pistol grip stippling done?

[Russel Nash]

Hi all,

Yeah, like this:


Just wondering how that is done.

Thanks!

[Cap'n Morgan]

I had a friend who did a grip like that using a pointed punch - no hammer, just elbow grease if I remember correctly. It took him forever, but the result looked good. I believe you could speed up the process by bundling half a dozen nails or similar pointed objects.

[crossdraw]

Or, use a Dremel tool.

[fecmech]

Back in high school shop(50's) we did that stuff on aluminum using a prick punch. You hold the punch lightly in your hand to guide it and someone else uses a piece of hardwood or small rawhide hammer and taps the back of the punch as you move it around on the work piece. I did the front and back strap of a 1911 many years ago with my wife doing the tapping and it looked great. Play around on some scrap to get the hang of it. Different shaped points on the punch will give you different patterns and uniform tapping gives you evenness to the pattern.

[Casting Timmy]

I think I remember someone telling me that certain plastics you can also do with a pointy soldering iron tip.

I've never done stippling but was told that you want to do it in the right direction so make sure the stippling gives more grip and doesn't make the gun even harder to hold as it's now slippery than before. This was from a guy that did glocks for the local competitive shooters that I meet one night when I tried out bowling pin shooting. He would not stipple directly into the surface, but instead did it at an angle.

Hopefully this makes sense from my posting.

[MtGun44]

Plastics with a soldering iron, make you tip the shape you want.

On wood, I'd GUESS that a rotary bit with the appropriate shape and touched randomly
with some significant skill.

Bill

[Any Cal.]

You grind a punch so it has somewhat random facets leading to the point, then with one hand rapidly "tink,tink,tink" with a tiny hammer, while the other hand randomly moves the punch over a small area. As the area gets covered to your satisfaction, start drifting onto a new little spot. It isn't hard once you try it, and makes for a nice design.

[theperfessor]

I'm betting they are using the equivalent of a pneumatically powered needle scaler with appropriate shaped tips on the needles. These are designed to knock off rust, scale, frog eyes from welding, etc. but with a little control they could be used for stippling on wood or some plastics with no problem. Wouldn't take long either, as opposed to one ding at a time.

[Frank46]

Sears used to sell a small engraving tool that had a small carbide tip. You could set the depth depending on what you were trying to mark. Check their tool catalog as it may be still available. Frank

[Moonie]

I know people that have used the soldering iron trick on AR pistol grips and polymer magazines to great effect.

[Russel Nash]

I'm betting they are using the equivalent of a pneumatically powered needle scaler with appropriate shaped tips on the needles. These are designed to knock off rust, scale, frog eyes from welding, etc. but with a little control they could be used for stippling on wood or some plastics with no problem. Wouldn't take long either, as opposed to one ding at a time.

I think you might be on to something with that needle scaler idea....if maybe it just had one needle.

But I gotta ask, what are "frog eyes" when you're welding?

[Russel Nash]

I did some more googling and found this thread:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537...like+to+try+it

You were right about the craftsman engraver.

awesome!

[peterthevet]

I reckon the perfessor is spot on.A needle scaler is the first thing that popped into my head.............this is a production grip and I think, therefore that some tool that would achieve the desired result ASAP would be the way that they would go.Of course I could be totally wrong.

Often looking at the finished result/product and rtying to envisiage how that was achieved/made brings up a multitude of results that are all correct in some way.....a bit like reverse engineering I suppose.Good thread!!

[KCSO]

Air operated stippling hammer, I happen to have one. You plug it in adjust the speed and put in the tip you want and go to town. If I remember right Gravemeister also has a tool for doing that.

[theperfessor]

Russel, frog eyes are the little balls of filler metal that come from arc welding and that end up stuck around the weld joint in places you don't want them. It is weld spatter, and they make sprays that you can use to keep them from sticking.

The hollow ball shape gives then their name.

[Longwood]

The first time I saw it,, it had been done with a small finish nail set.
Someone used to sell punch sets for doing it by hand with different looks.

[Russel Nash]

Russel, frog eyes are the little balls of filler metal that come from arc welding and that end up stuck around the weld joint in places you don't want them. It is weld spatter, and they make sprays that you can use to keep them from sticking.

The hollow ball shape gives then their name.

okay, thanks!

I just never heard welding splatter called frog eyes before. That does make sense.

I have heard/read that PAM cooking spray applied around the weld keeps the splatter from sticking.

The Mig welder I have now is pretty sweet, especially with the Argon/CO2 mix tank. No splatter, and no slag to chip off.

[Longwood]

I have one of the Chicago Pneumatic air scribes that is way more powerful than the electric ones. As in way way more powerful.
I would think the electric ones would be pretty anemic on hard stuff.
I have seen real good deals on ebay.
They are a 'low use' tool but they sure come in handy now and then.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Actually Brownells sells a punch to do this type of stippling. It is in amongst the checkering tools in their catalog. it is operated by a small hammer.

Keith. Frog eyes? I never heard that one. we call them "dingleberrys"

Randy

[theperfessor]

Around here dingleberries have a much, uh... earthier connotation. But I can see that name applied to weld spatter also. I use anti spatter spray inside my gas shields/nozzles on my MIG gun. Some combos of gas/flux/wire type are worse than others at making spatter. Almost anything oily will keep spatter from sticking.

We now return you to your original thread...