Source of wood blanks for making pistol grips?!?
dreher
Member Posts: 8,893 ✭✭✭✭
I'm trying to find a source of fancy wood blanks for a wood working project I'm trying to do. I have found all kinds of sites where I can buy full sized gunstock blanks but I'm having no luck finding small sized blanks. I actually figured this would be easy to do thinking about people wanting small sized blanks for making pistol grips. I must be entering the wrong info in the search bar as I'm getting no where. I've tried wood blanks, small wood blanks, wood for making pistol grips and other terms and keep ending up on full sized gunstock sites.
Is there anybody here who is into making wood pistol grips?? I want various sized pieces, the biggest of which would measure 6 inches X 4 inches. The desired thickness would vary but I can always cut to the desired thickness so a lot of ways to go here. I am interested in fancy walnut or fancy exotic (fill in the blank). Anything that I look at and go WOW!! that looks, cool would be what I'm interested in.
Knowing this group I figure there are a couple of you hobbying around trying to make some real pretty pistol grips or even someone well past the hobbying around stage and have a great source of what I'm looking for!! Thanks all !!
Comments
just to see I tried googling “exotic wood blanks “ and got dozens of hits for suppliers .i have dealt with Rockler in the past .
Here are a few.
https://www.cookwoods.com/collections/knife-blanks
https://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=587_827_602
I used the terms:
"Fancy wood scales for pistol grips"
Best.
Another for ironwood:
https://arizonaironwood.com/
and more:
http://www.rockbswesternwoods.com/stabilized-blocks-buckeye-maple-redwood.html
https://www.knifehandles.com/gun-grips
https://www.australianburls.com/Products.php
Try searching for "grip slabs"
I wish you'd said something 3 months ago! I had pieces of exotic woods that I'd collected over the last 25 years worth of contracting and could/would have sent you some pretty cool stuff! Ipe, Cumuru, tiger wood, purple heart, walnut, birch, bubinga, sapele, teak, and on and on. Gave it all to a woodworker buddy of mine.
When we had walnut flooring installed, I picked up some of the "scrap" pieces. Varying length but all just about 4" wide and 5/8" thick. Call around to a few flooring contractors to see if they have any leftovers.
I have replaced a few rifle stocks over the years with synthetic stocks. I salvaged the old stocks, which were most times broken, and used the wood for knife scales and pistol grips.
A want ad for old rifle stocks might generate a supply of nice wood.
I found quite a few old chestnut logs on my property. They are almost impossible to saw and heavy as rocks. Several people have expressed an interest in having a piece for knives and pistols but have yet to try it. Chestnut does not appear to have any fancy figure but it oughta be tough.
Quite a few years ago I was stacking wood on the wood pile and picked up a piece of walnut. I looked at the grain and decided to make grips for a cheap gun I have. Was a lot of fun and turned out pretty good. I think it took about a week before I got it where I wanted it.
Joe
i was going to suggest "in the woods". there are many beautiful and useful pieces of wood that can be picked up from just a walk in the wood. i would especially recommend the wood that can be salvaged from the "root ball" of many trees. just look at the wood in brier wood pipes.
I was going to say knife makers would know where to get what you're looking for.
I've got a chunk of iron wood crotch section, that I've been drying for 5 yrs. When I first cut it green, it looked like black walnut, then turned red in a couple of days, then grey. The other day I sliced off a piece with the table saw, hit it on the belt sander, then wiped on some BLO. It looks just like redwood burl now, nothing like the pics in that link. This stuff is heavy as rock, and just as hard. Green, one 10" cut with a new chain on my Stihl 041, completely dulled the teeth. The 4" x 1.5" slab I cut off with the table saw, took a good 10mins to do without burning up the blade.
Or look at a burl on a birch tree, They have great grain. I'm looking for a hunk of antler to make grips like this for my Anaconda. Any idea where I can get a nice thick one, like maybe Elk?
I can offer walnut, osage orange, honey locust, white oak, pin oak, and maybe a couple of other MidWest hardwoods blocks sized to fit into a medium flat rate Priority Box. All would be dried/seasoned in the log for at least 2 years(some closer to 5).
Nothing "exotic" but solid project blocks--you saw to suit your needs.
i just keep my eyes open everywhere there is wood laying around, if you can find some sycamore in the area, get one of the burls from it, (the lumps on the side of the trunks) the wood is often refered to as American lacewood
Picked this spalted curly maple up last fall from a guy on Marketplace. He just wanted it out of his yard. About 1000 lbs sealed and drying.
I'm not trying to hijack this post but I'm really interested in making a couple of pistol grips. Can someone point me to a site, u-tube would be great, on how to go about this? I have two civil war pistols that have no grips. Nothing really valuable but valuable to me. I can probably band saw the footprint but how is it shaped from there?
Thanks guys,
would be a bit too long/involved for in a thread, shoot me at oldemagicscustom@hotmail.com will try to help you out
Most makers today use CNC equipment for the shaping, then sand from there. Probably no how it was done in the 1860's. File and sand.
Here is a simple introduction to pistols just to get you started:
This one is for 1911 frames:
Best.
Thanks for all the replies guys. Since all my CNC machines are tied up with other projects, they won't be available. Looking at the videos doesn't give me a lot of confidence. They make it look easy! I'll probably give it a try as I have plenty of oak and maybe a little walnut.
Thanks for tip on Rare Woods USA. I have two pieces being shipped. One piece of Padauk and a piece of Bocote. I think these will end up making some beautiful Christian crosses once I reach the point I get everything figured out on the cutting, shaping and finishing. I'll have a lot of fun and might actually make something pretty at the same time.