Video on constructing a pistol grip

[Sa-tevo]

While getting ready to hand off our Air Pistol group's loaner IZH-46M to a new shooter I was looking around for useful AP videos and ran across this great video on making a grip from scratch. Yes, he has a great workshop but it is a great video.


PARDINI K10 - Costruirsi l'impugnatura - Pistolengriff selber bauen
Gianluca Santoro
Published on Feb 15, 2016

https://youtu.be/oYMhlrFuXyE

[deadeyedick]

Thanks...great video showing how to do it properly.

[jckstrthmghty]

Very cool video and high craftsmanship. Definitely helps for any future grip projects I might start. I was hoping to see how he added grip stippling, he didn't, and did he have to coat his entire hand in powder each time?

[Sa-tevo]

I went through the text of the video using an optical translator but other than the classic Italian/English term that comes out as "Snuffbox" the direct translation was useless.

In the past I had seen some good pictorials of grip making but they were split grip construction where the project began with cutting a block of wood in two and then fitting the frame into each piece. I like this laminated technique of sorting out the frame fit first but this is also a frame that uses a stub and bolt instead of cross screws for attaching the grip.

I think the powder on hand was one time only as I didn't see any other times when the powder residue was checked (or missed it). Maybe it was for rough fit. I have seen others use oil on the hand or lipstick on a glove. I have several modified Rink grips and use a tack hammer with a nail wedged into the head to duplicate the factory stippling. It doesn't take very long and the results look good. I start with the borders first as that needs the most concentration to look good.

Grip making and fitting fascinates me. I like when the camera focuses on pistols during ISSF World Cup finals and I can see the adjustment details. Pictures of Soviet/Russian pistol grips are fascinating too to see fitting concepts.

If anyone can point me to other grip fitting information I would appreciate it. I think searching in English misses information that may be in other languages. I bet there are a ton of resources in Russian due to the research done for Olympic results.

Ruig? Are you out there?

[BobGee]

Nice video but the problem I’m having is the basic design of the grip, I.e. palm and three finger width dimensions related to frame and barrel axis. Once I have that, I expect the rest to be pretty straightforward - sawing, drilling, rasping/chiselling, filing and sanding.

Can anyone point me at a website/forum where the design of a grip is addressed?

Bob

[Gwhite]

I'd start with a grip that is close (or even not that close), and putty & file it until it works for you. It can be really ugly, the thing is to get the shape right. Then it's just an issue of copying it into the wood of your choice.

[Sa-tevo]

Nice video but the problem I’m having is the basic design of the grip, I.e. palm and three finger width dimensions related to frame and barrel axis. Once I have that, I expect the rest to be pretty straightforward - sawing, drilling, rasping/chiselling, filing and sanding.

Can anyone point me at a website/forum where the design of a grip is addressed?

Bob

In a past thread I had a pretty good guide I crudely tried to translate that had good and bad examples. A grip from scratch is pretty tough to do but if you try several grips and work one of your own to a good fit you will have a strong idea of what you want. I'm pretty sure anyone who has made a grip from scratch has a box of grips that didn't work out.

A practice I like to use is to shoot a match or same number of shots and then try to identify what part of the grip bothers me. Out comes the tools and materials and a 1 - 2mm adjustment is made. After a while the grip really sinks into your hand, it is your grip. KwikWood/QuikWood works well for me. I have a dog-butt ugly grip with a lot of putty on it that is a super fit.

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... ox#p249715

[BobGee]

Thanks Sa-tevo, I’d forgotten Jan-Erik Aeply's stuff. I must have downloaded it a few years ago. Time to review it.

Bob

[Gunter]

Hi
I tried earlier to post an answer with a lot of details - unfortunately I got somehow 'cut off' by a 'time limit' -
apparently I cannot retrieve my writings before I sent the thing - so- no 'automatic draft' function here?

Anyway, as an answer to the 'stippling' question -

take a 1/4 or 3/8" coach bolt,
take a 1/4 or 3/8" edit: - 'triangular' GOOD file, - depending on how 'fine' you want your stitppling

file the lower end of the bolt (not he head) with a cross hatch pattern
weld a shortened screw driver (cut off 1 inch first) to the bolt about 2/3 up'
(or - drill a hole through a convenient bit of wood - like a handle.
you then have the tool to stipple any grip, stock or whatever you like!

the rest of my cut-short message related to making pistol grips and Wilhelm Hoffmann in Germany,
who made the best pistol grips at the time (1970/80s) - (I wasn't far behind though!)

rgds
Gunter

edit: for the UK crowd:
anyone around Hereford - Leominster in 1975/76 will remember me for making bespoke pistol grips!
There must be a few still around at the Leominster club?

[Sa-tevo]

...
the rest of my cut-short message related to making pistol grips and Wilhelm Hoffmann in Germany,
who made the best pistol grips at the time (1970/80s) - (I wasn't far behind though!)

rgds
Gunter

edit: for the UK crowd:
anyone around Hereford - Leominster in 1975/76 will remember me for making bespoke pistol grips!
There must be a few still around at the Leominster club?

I am hoping you add more to this post. I like learning how we got to where we are.

Stephen

[1066]

...
the rest of my cut-short message related to making pistol grips and Wilhelm Hoffmann in Germany,
who made the best pistol grips at the time (1970/80s) - (I wasn't far behind though!)

rgds
Gunter

edit: for the UK crowd:
anyone around Hereford - Leominster in 1975/76 will remember me for making bespoke pistol grips!
There must be a few still around at the Leominster club?

I am hoping you add more to this post. I like learning how we got to where we are.

Stephen

Please do Gunter - I was not aware of your grips at that time but I had excellent grips made for a Browning Match 150 and a S&W Mod 14 from Les Bowler, actually made by the late John Cooke I believe.

[Gunter]

Hello Stephen,

yes, Bowler grips were good - the advantage I had was that I only made grips for guys/girls who were
actually there, so I could fit to the individual hand instead of working from 'hand-outline drawings'!

So you could 'tweak' the grip to the individual to get to an 'intuitive' aiming line (if that makes sense...)

(I didn't make many - less than 20 from memory - but I seem to remember that at least 1 shooter went on to some fame with it.)

It's not too difficult to make a good grip if you have the basic necessities, as tools are concerned.
I started with a basic drill press & some milling heads to cut out the internal shape to fit on the gun.
Later I got a proper table top milling machine, but apart from making the work easier, it didn't make too much of a difference,
as you need to move the piece of wood by hand under the cutter, instead of using the milling table adjustments!
You start with two absolutely flat pieces of whatever wood you want to use - one thicker than the other,
to allow for the palm shelf.
Also you need a good flex line to attach to a drill, to carve out with a 'ball' milling tool.
And of course quite a lot of different rasps, files, reams of sandpaper and so on...
and a stippling tool! - nearly forgot: a good bandsaw - a hobby one will do - if you keep it well adjusted!
And, of course, the most important bit - some idea of what shape is required, and why - hehe
I got to it by being unimpressed by what was available and started by altering what I had.

I can't for the life of me remember any names of the Hereford - or Leominster club members now, it's been
some time! hehe
But I do remember that in Hereford we used to shoot in a WW2 'tunnel' somewhere on the outskirts of Hereford.
Cant find it on Google Earth! (how do you find a 'tunnel' on a satellite pic - hehe) - probably no longer used anyway.
The only other thing I remember from those days, apart from the (Bunch of?) 'Grapes' pub and a coffee shop that was run
by a dutch guy with his english 'Film (or TV?)' star wife and a rather nice waitress I tried to get my grubby little hands on (hehe!)
(this was late 1975), is a sports club I was taken to - no idea whether it was a football club or even a cricket club (unlikely!)
which had a sort of pub/bar. The worst beer I have ever had the misfortune of having to drink - hehe
Something called 'Tartan Bitter'? That was the only bitter they had on offer.....

So, that's all I can contribute at the moment - I have moments where I remember things, and others where I don't.
Probably depends on what I read in a thread, which might bring on memories.

Best regards
Gunter