new grips

[45owner]

My dad and I are starting to make our own grips for 1911's. Let me know what ya think of them.

[45owner]

That picture was pretty big, sorry about that, I can't figure out how to resize it. here's a smaller pic of my dad's rock Island.

[El Duderino]

Right purdy!


Where do I send in for my free trial set?


LOL

[Old Coastie]

Very nice. Is this just going to be a hobby or are you thinking about making a lot of others very happy by selling your grips. I would love a pair of the elk grips.

As an aside, are the elk grips thinner than normal production models?

Again, very nice.

Good shooting,

Mike

[45owner]

The elk antler grips are about the same thickness as standard grips. The amboinia burl grips can be made thinner for competition guns or regular thickness. If I thin the elk antler down I will either lose the width needed or have to grind off the ridges making them look more like bone. I have other kinds of exotic woods also. I am going to make another set out of Iya burl and maybe ebony wood. I'll let you know if I decide to sell some and how much I would need for them. I bought 2 sets of elk antlers for $500, so I will have to see how many sets I can get out of them to figure a price. I also make knives.

[45owner]

another pic

[45owner]

oops, wrong one

[sheepdog]

The ambonia burl looks great, good work. Is all of it that good are do you "shop" it? I'm looking for some nice ambonia or ironwoods, but I think I want half-checkered.

[BusterDog]

Beautifu!!! I want a set of both.

[45owner]

All of the amboinia burl looks that good, We also make them out of cocobolo, aya burl, curly maple, and anything that looks good at the place where we buy our wood. We don't have the checkering machine yet but IMHO that just takes away from the beauty of the wood. The wood grips I can sell for $60/set and the elk antler one $75. It takes about 3hrs to make a set of grips with all the cutting, drilling,grinding,sanding and all. E-mail me if you all are still interested at that price and I will get more pics on here and figure out how we can do business.

[45owner]

Amboinia burl

[45owner]

Iya burl

[45owner]

Sambar

[45owner]

Sold the textured set. Anyone else like a set?

[okie]

You guys do a wonderful job my friend. Lookin very good;) :cool:

[Old Coastie]

45owner,

Did you get the email I sent you?

Good shooting,

Mike

[45owner]

return e-mail sent coastie

[45owner]

Oh yeah, I should mention this in case someone doesn't understand. As with anything that is handmade, there will be a small imperfection or two that is hardly noticeable. If they were perfect then they would have to be stamped out on a machine. I hope this helps.

[Old Coastie]

Originally posted by 45owner
Oh yeah, I should mention this in case someone doesn't understand. As with anything that is handmade, there will be a small imperfection or two that is hardly noticeable. If they were perfect then they would have to be stamped out on a machine. I hope this helps.

I am the someone referenced above. You see, I purchased a set of Mr. 45owner's elk grips. All I had to go on was what he said in this thread and a picture of the grips, which was taken at a slight angle from the bottom of the grips and at an undetermined distance. I paid my money and got my grips in short order.

Here is where it gets really interesting. Let me preface the following by saying that I understand the concept of "small imperfection", especially as it applies to a material such as elk or stag etc. I inspected the grips and emailed Mr. 45owner to tell him of my unhappiness with the grips. Here is what Mr. 45owner calls a "small imperfection":

The two grips are not the same length.
The two grips are not the same width.
The front and rear edges of both grips do not follow the line of the pistol.
The front and rear edges of both grips are not the same distance from the same edge of the pistol from side to side.
Only three of the holes are round. The fourth is so oblong that light can be seen past the head of a grip screw.

I would appreciate it very much is some of you gentlemen could tell me if any or all of these defects should be considered "small imperfections" on my part. Which of you gentlemen would accept grips as described for your personal use. If you would, please email me and I will sell my set to you and everybody will be happy.

In the meantime I have asked Mr. 45owner to refund my money and I will return his grips. Since there are only "small imperfections", he should easily be able to sell them to another. He has refused. I will be happy to foreward his gracious email to anyone who desires to read it.

If any of you would like to see the "small imperfections", I will be happy to send you pictures if you will email me.

Thanks all,

Mike

BTW, I was going to deal with Mr. 45owner on a one to one basis, until the above post appeared.

[45owner]

When it comes to elk antler it is hard to get a flat enough piece that is wide enough to use. That is why I said that I could only get three sets from the sheds. I am sorry that you are unhappy with them but how do I know that if I sent the money back that you wouldn't keep the grips. That is why I won't do refunds on things like this. I am not a Store but an individual. I hope noone here on Glocktalk thinks anything less of me. There are just some people out there that can't be satisfied.

[Old Coastie]

Originally posted by 45owner
When it comes to elk antler it is hard to get a flat enough piece that is wide enough to use. That is why I said that I could only get three sets from the sheds. I am sorry that you are unhappy with them but how do I know that if I sent the money back that you wouldn't keep the grips. That is why I won't do refunds on things like this. I am not a Store but an individual. I hope noone here on Glocktalk thinks anything less of me. There are just some people out there that can't be satisfied.

From your quote it appears that you can get three properly sized sets of 1911 grips from the sheds you purchased. That must mean that I got the fourth set, huh.

How do you know I would send the grips back if you sent my money back. Well, let's see. I guess I could have said the same of you. You received my money before you sent the grips. Are you saying that you are deserving of trust but I am not? If you expect your customers to trust you, you need to extend the same trust to you customers. Now, lets look at this from a practical standpoint. If you send me back my money in the form of a personal check and insure same, your cancelled check is proof of receipt, not counting the fact that there is a proof of delivery on an insured item. Conversly, once the check clears, I send back the grips insured to you. I have proof of shipping and a delivery confirmation. Everyone is happy.

You say there are "just some people out there that can't be satisfied". Let me ask you, and everyone watching this thread, a question. Should I be satisfied with a set of grips which do not even have 4 round holes for the grip screws, and which have uneven dimensions from side to side? Is this the quality of product you are trying to sell to the members here? Should they be satisfied with oblong grip screw holes and other problems? I do not believe that all of your grips are like this. I rather tend to believe that this set is the exception to the rule. That being said, I do not believe I should be forced to pay for anything less than your best effort.

I sincerely hope you can see your way clear to trust me as I trusted you.

Mike

[kestrou]

I have no dog in this fight, but I'm with Coastie on general principles.

45owner - if he got the grips and just decided he didn't like them because of the phase of the moon, then you smile and happily refund his money. It's called "good customer service".

Now everybody shake hands and be happy! ;f

kestrou

[paigecm]

As a viewer of this thread. I would have to agree with Coastie. He trusted you to send him the grips on receipt of the money you should in turn trust him with the return of the grips. Now with the attention of this thread I am sure you would not get stuck with no money or grips. Both of you sound like trustworthy people but misunderstanding and misrepresentations happen to no ones fault. But we all have to make things right once and a while. One persons close to perfect is anothers close to imperfection. No knock on the grips the wood ones look great.