Homemade Grips for the Ruger Blackhawk

[brian.z]

So I had purchased a Ruger Blackhawk .357 a number of years ago and have always enjoyed taking it to the range. Recently I decided I wanted to personalize it a bit by making a set of grips for it. After quite a bit of time searching (I never was able to find Sandlewood) I had settled on olivewood but was unable to find a blank large enough. I took a trip to Woodcraft in Woburn and picked up a block of Black and WHite Ebony.

I cut off two sections for the grips.


For rough shaping I took a belt grinder, zip tied the trigger and mounted on my bench. Probably not the safest thing in the world but it worked.


Here is the rough shape.


I then started working on the curvature. To help I began placing one of the Ruger grips on the back of my grips for comparison purposes.


The next two pictures are the grip on the firearm to get a better idea of what needed to be done.



Once the shape is where I wanted it I put two coats of Minwax finishing paste on it.


Now they are not a perfect fit and I may in the future do another set, after I do a set for my SR 1911, but I think they look nice and feel great when shooting.


Now I just need to get a dedicated room for doing this. I did this set in my garage with no vacuum system and the mess was of epic proportions.

 

[Golddiggie]

If you're going to do much of this kind of thing, get a proper belt sander/grinder. You can go cheap with one from Sears (belt and disc). Or you can get one that takes 72" long belts (either 1" or 2" wide). I used one from Grizzly that connected to their buffer. Basically, you buy the buffer, then the belt grinder arm/assembly. You still have one side of the buffer to use, which really helps. You can use that with different wheels and compounds to put a really nice finish on wood and metal.

A stop-gap until you get a dust collection system would be to set up a fan to blow the dust away from you, and out the garage door. Well, unless your car is parked right outside the door.

BTW, pretty good first time at it. I do think better tooling will give you far better results.

 

[jefftk]

Now I just need to get a dedicated room for doing this. I did this set in my garage with no vacuum system and the mess was of epic proportions.

If you're going to do much of this kind of thing, get a proper belt sander/grinder. You can go cheap with one from Sears (belt and disc). Or you can get one that takes 72" long belts (either 1" or 2" wide). I used one from Grizzly that connected to their buffer. Basically, you buy the buffer, then the belt grinder arm/assembly. You still have one side of the buffer to use, which really helps. You can use that with different wheels and compounds to put a really nice finish on wood and metal.

A stop-gap until you get a dust collection system would be to set up a fan to blow the dust away from you, and out the garage door. Well, unless your car is parked right outside the door.

BTW, pretty good first time at it. I do think better tooling will give you far better results.

Also, lacking a vacuum system (and even if you get one) a respirator would be a good idea too....
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-dust-safety/

The grips look nice though.

 

[Nemo]

They look awesome!

If I saw that at the range I'd stop to tell you how great they look. Very cool