I recently acquired a 1917 that has been modified somewhat but the work is impeccable. my question is, it has pearl grips and the right side is engraved with some silver work around the right grip, the left grip is smooth and unaltered. after researching on the internet, I located a fellow in Houston who told me this was a popular modification back in the 20s and 30s and he has seen several done this way but can find no one to give him any reasoning for this. this old gun locks up great, is butter smooth action wise, nickeled a long time ago but well done, barrel shortened to 4 inches, balanced perfectly for me and will have a great home in my motorhome. can anyone shed some more light on the grip question? thanks in advance.

I sure don't know the answer but it sounds kind of like the pearl grips with the carved steer head on the right side. Some had ruby eyes and silver or gold horns.
I don't know why they just did one side but I'd like to see your grips and 1917 if you can post a picture.

I always thought the reason that right grips (usually ivory or pearl) and not left grips were carved with a pattern was to give "more grip" on the gun, like checkering would normally give for a right handed shooter.

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

That, and the fact that more people are right handed means that the fancier grip would be visible when the gun was holstered.... Gotta show as much bling as possible at the ol' BBQ, ya know?

Mark

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S&W Forum Member #721

This was always my thought as well.

We need pics.

Charlie

I picked up an early '50s nickel M&P .38 (pre-Model 10) earlier this year with very nice old MOP stocks. I was warned by several Forum members about how fragile these stocks are if you're carrying or shooting regularly. You might want to consider, like I did, buying a set of old wooden service stocks or bonded ivories (Altamont Co.) to keep on your revolver...except when you're at a BBQ, of course! Those older MOP stocks are commanding some good prices these days, so keep them in good condition.

George Patton wasn't my CO. I'm too young for that (but it makes me feel good just to say it because I'm old now, too.) I don't care what he said I do for a living, and it kind of sounds like fun. Something else I've never done. I wonder if Cajunlawyer has ever done that. I'd like to hear the story anyway.

Common sense says that if you're going to shoot a gun with Pearlies on it, you should make it a light recoiling gun. Stress from firing is what cracks the material. That and whacking miscreants on the haid. Then you'd want to shoot them for the damage they did. Better off just shooting them to begin with. Less fuss and muss. Pearl grips can look nice. Or ratty after the bottom corners chip out and vanish (probably imbedded in some fools scalp.)

Anyone buying pearls should do a close inspection. You want to really examine the bottom corners both grips. And then the top around the stock circle, and both sides. You're looking for any chips or cracks that will soon be a chip. Look closely, they're probably there.

Patton did us a real disservice with is comments. And its been said he had a gun with them, too. But his opinions don't control our current behavior. A while back I found and bought what I feel are some nice K frame Pearls. I don't really like the Mexican eagle on the right one, but it's flashy enought and they don't clash with that engraved K22. Notice they're on a gun that never gets fired. And if it did, chances are it wouldn't damage the grips. I kind of doubt it would be a good idea on a 44 with stout loads.

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Dick Burg

I dunno. A guys comes here and starts talkin 1917, engraved pearl grips, awesome work, silver, and dosnt post a pic. Im thinkin he must be pullin our chain?

Traditionally, carved gun stocks were only embellished on one side... the inside. Carving was an additional expense possibly even doubling the cost of the original stocks. The art was worn on the inside to protect it. We've all seen the abuse to which stocks are subjected. My guess is this guy was either left handed or, as a military firearm, he wore the revolver on his left side because something of more importance was worn on the right.

Frank Hamer, Lone Wolf Gonzales, Tom Threepersons, Bat Masterson and many more would have slapped the taste out of old George's mouth if he had said that to them. All these old boys preferred MOP. According to the S&W catalogue of 1901 the pearls cost more than Ivory. But a person involved in the afore mentioned business probably made more than a 1st LT in 1900.

Rick, this is a good theory that makes some sense but I beg to differ. When we study old surviving examples of sixgun stocks with embellishments added to only one side, the fancy work is almost always found on the right, not left, panel. Examples of the reverse, with work found on the left, and not right, side are quite scarce. I would guess the ratio is something like 10:1, if not greater.

So, you see, if what you say were truly the case, we'd have to assume that lefties, and not righties, dominate and/or that righties were, for whatever reason, always carrying on the left side, neither of which is true, of course.

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SWHF #448

So's y'all have something to look at while the OP is making a daguerreotype, here's some carved pearls from a 1910 Colt Frontier Six Shooter. I don't have carved ones for my S&W revolvers, but forum member Combat has some that look like this. I believe they came from Wolf & Klar many years ago.

Oh, and my two cents are the carvings are done on the viewing side when the gun is holstered.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

These are for a K frame. Wished they was for a N frame, would have looked good on my .44.

This past fall, I traded for a 1905HE .32S/W long with S/W pearls on it. They are so easy to break that I laid them up and made a set of wood grips from a J frame and put them on it...

Hello MOP people. How did they cut it and carve it? It has all ways seemed to be like glass. Im just un-informed. Mike 2796

MOP is very easy to work. It's a lot more like teeth than glass. It saws, grinds, files, sands and polishes like ivory and stag (and teeth) . Yes, it's a bit more fragile but I haven't broken any working on them. However, they're almost guaranteed to break if dropped on a hard surface. The others can crack and/or break if dropped as well but not near as readily.

If they are too tight for the grip frame and any pressure is used to press them in place, they will chip or flake at the top and around the grip dowel. If they are loose, they can crack when shooting, especially hard kicking guns.

There are an awful lot of pearl grips on Colt .45s and N frame 44s from yesteryear that were used hard and shot a lot that have survived unscathed.

Yes, also many we see today have corners broken off. Everyday used guns do get dropped, and IMHO, that's the main reason we see broken corners on MOP. Dropped guns usually hit the ground butt first.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Back during the 1960s and 1970s, my dad had a hobby of jewelry making. It was a branch of his rockhounding. And as rockhounds they traveled a bit and traded fossils from around here, and other places in their travels for whatever. At one such stop the local trader just had to own bucket fulls of Ordivician fossils and was willing to trade his Ablone for them. So my dad came home and began carving and grinding on them. He'd read that the dust was toxic to say the least. So his work, out of necessity, was done under water. Virtually all MOP that is carved or shaped spent its time submerged.

It may be soft, but it can kill you, too.

And when it chips, which it does or will, you need a repairman. We've got a dentist that excels at it. He uses one of his tooth expoy substances, I think he once said he cures it with UV light. Some of his work is hard to see, even if you know where the chipped corner was. Better still, he was the pusher who sold me my current 4" Triple Lock. Whats not to like?

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Dick Burg

General remarks about the dangers of dust particles of any substance are correct, particularly the glass-like fragments from seashells. Common sense precautions should always be taken during production of dust from any product being worked. This is the principle reason for working materials under water and before more technical filtration systems were developed.

But believe me, if true toxicity really existed, the water would not save you anyway! Claims about heat releasing a protein, the protein being absorbed through open cuts, and extreme toxicity are highly suspect since nothing can be found elsewhere which documents this.

Colt Firearms is invoked as a source on such research, but soon after an article appeared, several calls to the Colt factory were made and could find no one who knew anything about it. Knowledge of such research was finally and positively denied by Jim Alaimo, who was then superintendant of Colt’s custom shop (where custom grips are made and any non-standard work is performed) and is more well known by many of us now as the proprietor of Nutmeg Sports. To be fair, we’ll later look at problems where shell’s scleroprotein is implicated, such as personal allergic reactions and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is linked below.

If concerned read this, Cut Shell and Die:

http://www.portercalls.com/images/so...DIEarticle.pdf

Health Precautions - Mother of Pearl Types - KnifeHandles.com - Your #1 Exotic Material Supplier

Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis Treatment | Conditions & Treatments | UCSF Medical Center

Hope this puts it all in perspective,

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Jim
S&WCA #819

thanks to everyone for the information.

Comment re this thread --

I put an eagle or a snake on the left grip so I can see it when I hold the gun, something
else on the right to show for others ---

From my grip-pix file --


This one is a grip fix, replaced a big shard of ivory that was missing --


Ivory on ebony, silver on ivory & ebony, silver on bone -- Ebony grips &
all decor work is my DIY. Repairing pearls, I use Devcon 5 minute epoxy
because it sets water-clear, missing chips I use pearl buttons for material
& when the pearl matches, the result is at worst not obvious & at best
undetectable.

I read an article many years ago about pearl grips being made in the Pacific Islands . This was mainly because of the huge shells available and the young men that were able to retrieve them from great depths, not to mention the artistic ability to turn them into works of art for us gun folks. There was a period of time when these fellows were pushed in production past the point of safety. They were dying at an alarming rate! After it occurred to some one to autopsy some of the misfortunate ones, they found that through inhalation the shell shards had cut their lungs to doll rags. The water is to keep this dust like material that is actually super sharp shards from killing them.

SORRY, I didn't see Hondo's post. I was a little late to the party.

Here is a set carved by Wolf & Klar:

DSCN0392 by alex1961m, on Flickr

Actually, I don't think W&K made any grips. They sure did sell a bunch of carved or just grips made from exotic materials. We've had threads on this in the past and the conclusion is that the items we identify as W&K grips are simply supplied by them. Outside "contractors", often Mexican workman, did it as a kind of cottage industry. You could order anything you wanted, and they'd supply it within reason. Some posters here have even studied the markings on the pearl grips. It seems a large number have roman numerals on the back side, probably to keep the pair together. The quality you see if you view enough is that it ranges from terrible to great. More toward the high end of quality.

If anyone else has a comment, I'd like to hear it. I imagine W&K as a high volume gun shop, not a sweat shop with a bunch of little guys hunched over a grinding wheel, killing themselves with toxic dust. I could be wrong.

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Dick Burg

A pair of maybe W&K pearls on my $900 TL S&W re-nickel - as near a new TL I'll ever get.
No marks on grips back.



Dust from MOP work may be dangerous like people say. Wondering if I should be worried,
been working MOP off & on much of my life. Is it likely to get me in my old age? I'm only
91 now.

At a small gun show last weekend , I passed on a Spanish copy of a .44 triple lock . Real rough , badly out of time , etc. BUT it had a fairly decent pair of steer head (R side) MOP stocks. Owner would not budge below $175 so I walked. I'm wondering now if maybe I should have picked it up just for the stocks ?

When my grandfather was 91, my mother and his doctor were trying to get him to give up his nightly whisky. It wasn't like he got drunk, just a small glass on his way to bed. Surely not a shot (1 1/2 oz). Really it was my mother with the assistance of his doctor. So they kind of had a dust up over it. And his argument was pretty simple. He'd been taking a sip at bedtime for a lot of years. It helped him get to sleep. So he asked the simple question. "Whats it going to do? Kill me young? Too late for that."

Just another story about women wanting old guys to suffer. So the doctor, to appease my mother, agreed with her for some reason. She cleared all the booze he had out. And she went home, feeling like a victor. Before she got out the drive, he called me and told me it was payback time. So I drove him out a bottle. He was happy and she was happy. Until he dumped the empty in the garbage can and she found it. Not his smartest move.

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Dick Burg