Franzite grips.

Andy Griffith

Andy Griffith

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I have acquired several pairs of these over the years, and always took them off the firearms I've obtained them with and thrown them in a box.
All these grips are post-war, correct?

I believe they are bakelite, or similar material.

Does anyone have a vintage Franzite brochure I could get a copy of?
 
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I have acquired several pairs of these over the years, and always took them off the firearms I've obtained them with and thrown them in a box.
All these grips are post-war, correct?

I believe they are bakelite, or similar material.

Does anyone have a vintage Franzite brochure I could get a copy of?
 
Check on ebay.
icon_wink.gif
 
The 1961 31 page Franzite catalog I have is a very informative booklet on the frame size changes on Colts and S&Ws etc.

Sports Inc., out of Chicago, was the name of the firm that made/sold "Franzite Grips".

The Shooter's Bibles from the 50's and 60's have part of the catalog usually reproduced, as Stoeger sold them.

"Non Magna" style,(prewar) were available for a number of S&W models, and I have accumulated some over the years to use as "shooting grips" to spare the valuable "wood" grips on some of my "vintage S&Ws".

Bud
 
I have 2 sets of imitation stags. Both were adquired on old model hand ejectors, a Triple lock and earky 3844 HD.
 
I caught the last 2/3rds of Bullit on TCM last night so watched it. I noticed that one of the patrolmen in the hospital sequence had a set of what I think were large target style Franzites on a 6" revolver. White simulated ivory, no less. They really stood out against the dark uniform like a beacon.

I guess they served a purpose but I always thought they defined the word ugly.
 
Franzite grips date from the 1930s. My aunt gave me a decrepit Colt .22 revolver with broken up grips. I got new Franzite "pearl" grips with medallion for it, $1.75 as I recall. Local pool hall operator dabbled in guns and was seller of Franzite grips, somewhat in vogue at the time when 'plastic' had not been discovered.
 
Blast from the past...

I am addicted to older Colt guns. I have 1911s, Commanders, A beautiful Python and an old style Trooper .357. Today I went to the toy store and found a circa 1966 Colt Detective Special with white, junky Franzite grips on it. They haven't warped but they look to have shrunk. They don't meet the frame cutout right. Soon as I got home I went online and ordered new/old grips for it and a Don Hume holster. The HKS Tool and Die second six speedloaders for a S&W M-10 work on the revolver. The gun is gorgeous. The finish is at least 99%. Looks like it sat in some old folk's sock drawer for the last 40 years. I, in the words of the late, great Mantan Moreland..."has done died and gone to heaven!" My wife and I went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner and the Colt DS went along. We are in the silly season and it doesn't pay to leave the "dog" at home...( The one who "barks in your hand and bites way across the room" ). I have PMC "magnum" .38spl 66 gr tubular copper rounds in the little Colt.
 
After "throwing them in a box", your next move should be to throw them in the trash. It's been my experience that Franzites have a nearly universal tendency to shrink, warp, and occasionally discolor. They never struck me as especially high quality in the first place, so I wouldn't even bother with 'em. JMHO

Larry
 
Texas Star said:
Unless my memory is faulty, Franzite grips sometimes warped. Not sure how common this was.

T-Star
Click to expand...

T-*

That's kinda like saying, "Scrolls found at the Dead Sea are sometimes old." Those grips warped, cracked, shrunk, and about anything else bad one could imagine. I used to collect early High Standard auto pistols, and several of my acquisitions had suffered a Franzite transplant. That was always cause to lower the valuation of the piece significantly.

They, along with Fitz Grips that came along a little later, provided a way to keep your hand off the grip frame when shooting, but that's about the best that can be said about them. I still see the grips at shows from time to time, but usually in somebody's junk box, almost never on a gun.

JMHO, but about the only relatively cheap mass produced aftermarket grips (this excludes higher end stuff like Herrett, Hogue, et al) that I find acceptable out of the box are those from Jay Scott, and even they are starting to get more costy!

Froggie
 
lebomm said:
After "throwing them in a box", your next move should be to throw them in the trash. It's been my experience that Franzites have a nearly universal tendency to shrink, warp, and occasionally discolor. They never struck me as especially high quality in the first place, so I wouldn't even bother with 'em. JMHO

Larry
Click to expand...

Throwing out something for which there is a market? There are those who believe they are reflective of the period in which they were most popular, the 1950s and 1960s and value them for that reason. I have sold perhaps a half-dozen pairs of Franzites on eBay over the years and got some pretty fair amounts for them.

Franzite grips are absolutely not Bakelite, which is a thermoset phenol-formaldehyde plastic, meaning that it cannot melt after the chemical polymerization reaction has occurred. They are instead made of some type of thermoplastic copolymer, probably polystyrene based, as they will melt and soften. I have straightened out warped Franzite grips by simply holding them over a hot electric cookstove element to soften them slightly and bending them straight again. Very simple to do.
 
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When I bought a M27 back in 1976, with the intention of making a .44 Special out of it, the Smith came with a pair of pinkish swirled Franzites. The interesting thing was that they were a pretty fair copy of Coke targets, down to the molded-in diamonds and the Coke palm swell.
 
Like many things in the firearms world, even Franzite stocks have a following. Throwing them out should not be a consideration. People collect everything and I would bet that if offered for sale, someone would buy them. I have several pairs and would never consider throwing them away.
 
Franzites

Everyone has opinions and while Franzites were never a long-tern grip solution for gun owners they have always filled a niche and had a strong following. Generally people who scorn them are those recently crowned 'collectors' who are thrilled to pay $300+ for a set of Coke bottles that sold for $23 new in the 70s or 80s, or $150+ for a set of magnas that were neither more nor less than the "pull-off tires" of guns in that era. Tastes change. They aren't wonderful quality grips but in a cop's squadroom back then you often saw more Franzite than magna in the days when I began as a yearling cop. For that reason...to be 'period-correct' I kept them on an old snubbie I have.
If you don't like them, pull them and take them to a gun show and walk around with them in your hand and someone will always try to trade you out of them, and you might get something for them that you do want. If some nimrod walks up and curls his lip at your Franzites just tell him to "keep walking."
 
Franzites do provide a portal to the past. Back in the late 1950s when I started to take shooting seriously, I found a large number of used guns with Franzite grips. I remember buying several pairs of new Franzites for several guns, most notably a Luger and a .45 M1911. Both of which had fairly shaggy original wood grips when I first bought them. I always liked the appearance of the Franzites on those two guns, but those on the Luger did not fit it very well, but good enough to use. At one time I had close to a dozen pairs of Franzite grips, off and on guns. I also remember seeing cops with Franzites on their guns. I would never dream of throwing a pair of Franzites away as someone earlier suggested. They take me back to when I was a youngster.
 
My Victory model came to me from my FIL with a set of Franzite grips on it. It came to him the same way during the early 50's. That's the only grips I have ever seen on it, they don't look bad at all, and I too have seen them on many LEO's revolvers back in my early years as one myself. I'm talking during the 1960's here. Considering the banging around they took on working cop's revolvers, they held up pretty well for the most part, and they were affordable even for LEO's in those days.

I have bought a set of correct grips for the Victory just to have them, and I have replaced the lanyard on the butt which had been removed to make it period correct, and I still have and will have the Franzites as long as I have the Victory! BTW, the Victory also came to me with a Bauer holster probably bought sometime before the early '50's that is in very good condition. All in all, a pretty nice package to have as a gift from my FIL, who was a proud WWII vet and who passed at almost age 97 last September.
 
Muley Gil said:
When I bought a M27 back in 1976, with the intention of making a .44 Special out of it, the Smith came with a pair of pinkish swirled Franzites. The interesting thing was that they were a pretty fair copy of Coke targets, down to the molded-in diamonds and the Coke palm swell.
Click to expand...

The mold they used might have been cast from a pair of Coke grips.

You can make a silicon rubber mold of each side of a pair of Cokes, Ropers, etc., then cast with resin as many exact replicas as you want - pink swirled included (clear resin with a little pink dye, a little white dye and marble dust or pearl dye). That's probably what the Franzite people did. I've done this to create chess pieces and I'm considering doing it with some post-war diamond magnas, adding a little to the bottom so that they work for pre-war revolvers. I will probably also make some imitation mop or ivory service grips - all simple and does no damage to the original grips. The only real problem is the screws, but you can cast those as well.
 
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