Good for you. Even with the problems, you stole em!
Smith and Wesson N Frame target-style grips fossil ivory | eBay
A little data-
Soaking won't hurt. As Jim said, baby oil is fine if you don't mind the perfume. Regular old drugstore mineral oil is fine. Doesn't have to be food grade unless you intend to eat them.
On the warp- you'll never straighten it. Ivory is somewhat like wood- it must be dried a long time before it is worked. All of it will warp or move when drying. I don't know how long it takes, but it is a long time. After a tusk is cut into blanks, it is a good idea to wait a few months to see if they 'move'.
Color- those grips have been dyed with tea. Nothing wrong with that. It is often done to knock the white glare down. Most will polish off.
Fixing- If you can talk TimB into working them, jump all over it. Just pay what he wants. Money WELL spent.
Have him reshape them to cut the warp out. Add metal circles.
If you can, talk Keith into checkering.
Mine haven't seen much use, so they haven't yellowed much, but they have a little. The grain and schreger lines are more visible. They ARE hard to photograph.
By request-
You outed me! I almost feel a little ashamed about the price if I am honest.
Your stocks are ones I have lusted after for years. So gorgeous. Thanks for the new pictures.
We will see what Tim and Keith say. If they can never fit an N-Frame correctly again upgrading them into a set of K-Frame Ropers would certainly be a dream come true. My wife and I already negotiated that I will always have budget to fund any project Keith has time to undertake for me, I'm certain I can extend that to Tim.
The longer I have been around the fine people in the SWCA, the more I have found that the best thing is getting involved in truly special projects, and scrounging up interesting guns that allow me to, in my own small way, add a little bit of knowledge to the group that has given me so much. There really isn't a better gun forum on the internet, because there really isn't a better group of gun guys out there.
In terms of turning these stocks into something even more magnificent, I will have to have a chat with Keith regarding another potential far out on the horizon project we speculated might happen some day, maybe these can be a part of that.
I have to compliment you on taking a chance
buying those grips. Not knowing and risking on them was karma for you getting a terrific set
real ivorys. Their patina and color is really a stand out.
I suspect with the mineral oil treatments and care they will come around where the fit improves.
Again I'm jealous of your intuition and hope
mine imulates yours when on my S&W treasure hunting forays. On the quest
now hoping some of your luck rubs off in my direction.
Best J R...
Fortunately I introduced a friend of mine to ivory by directing him to a set of 1911 panels that were like $50. I frequently point friends at deals I find, especially since the baby came along and I shouldn't be buying much.
In any case, he promptly became an old ivory
fanatic. I have no idea how much of the stuff he has acquired since that time, but he has learned a lot about it, and by extension his sharing with me has helped me learn how to identify actual ivory, even with bad pictures. Which is a skill I've long applied to buying guns off of ebay. A good chunk of my good buys over the years have been on guns that I gambled on because the pictures were so bad. Not that there aren't losers when you gamble, but with enough purchases you can start to identify good guns, even with bad pictures.
So this set may have seemed like a chance, but at that price, and with the good pictures, I don't think it was. I was fully prepared for them not to fit right, and enjoy them as is if they fit especially wrong.
Learning that Lee's Ropers are actually the work of Tim and Keith... well it's something that I didn't really know before getting these. I should have, but they are so good I just assumed that if Gagne was asked to checker some Ivory he would have spent extra time and attention on it, making it look like Keith did it.
Truthfully. While I looked at Lee's pictures. I didn't dig into it further then that. I find when I see something that I desire greatly, but think I can never have, I just have to admire it, and try to move on. Those stocks are in the same class for me as a certain Alvin White engraved gun that just so happens to have a Tiger on it. Something that I dream of possessing, but in reality never will, so I put it out of my head.
Obviously, in this case, that was to my detriment because the reality of the genesis of Lee's stocks is cooler then I thought it was, when I thought they were merely original Ropers made by Gagne. Also, now I have to ask: did Gagne ever make Ivory Ropers?
I should also note that anyone can get me at
[email protected] if they want me to evaluate some terrible pictures of a gun/gun thing they are interested in. I'm keyed in on pre-war S&Ws and accoutrements, but I've been buying enough stuff on ebay/gunbroker that I can at least offer an opinion on other things. If you find something awesome I may grouse a little bit about how much I envy your find, but I think it's particularly rude, and even wrong to snipe something that someone else has dibs on.
