Subtle,
Now that you know you can make your own grips, there will be more. Each pair you make will be a little better and perhaps more elaborate than the last. And you will experiment with different woods. In most metropolitan areas, there is a shop catering to woodworking hobbyists, and you can buy small pieces of the expensive, exotic stuff. After a few more learning sets, you'll be confident enough to try the fancy wood.
Remember, there is zebra wood, purple heart, black walnut, all sorts of oak, colorful laminates...let your mind run wild.
You can use modeling clay to fit your hand, and then copy that in wood. This is not for the 100% and rare classic Smiths, but just fun guns and target guns. And grips are switched in two minutes.
With the pair below, I started with the dimensions of "I" frame grips on a Bekeart, and then changed them slightly to suit my grip and esthetic eye.
To prepare, and make the next set easier and more factory-looking, you can go to Numrich/Gun Parts Corp and find where they sell one of my favorite things, little packs of 10 or 12 sets of the three piece escutcheons for do-it-yourself grips, or replacement of damaged ones on factory grips. These are the two brass pieces and the screw. The splined brass pieces press firmly into a shallow 1/4" hole; don't drill all the way through the grip panel. If necessary, file the brass down flush before putting on a finish.
Sometime, I may try to learn checkering. In the meantime, here is a plain, smooth black walnut set I made a week ago for an old Regulation Police .32. The rebated frame makes it a little more complex, but that is what the dremel routing attachment is for. And a cheap Chinese benchtop milling machine lets you easily do the thin to fat, top to bottom contour on each blank panel. A cheapo Chinese benchtop electric jig saw lets you cut the blank slightly over the size you traced around the frame.
And remember, nobody says you can't make oversize custom target grips which enclose the frame outline, like S&W does. Again, you just trace and then route it out. It isn't very critical, as the cross pin at the bottom of the frame and the top area hold nice, snug alignment, if you take it slowly.
Step by step, it's not so difficult, just takes patience. As Chuck Schumer might say, "It keeps them (us) off the streets."
I have a source of local scrap walnut, oak, etc. Here I got fancy and cut my blank pieces and opened them to do the mirror image grain thing, just like downtown, but costing nothing.
It's all about fun, and we don't have to worry about the Correct Police. And none of this makes any permanent change to the gun itself.
