That ship sailed a while ago, but we're sailing back to Larry now.
I started out wanting to clarify what were Farrant and not-Farrant grips because I like Farrant. A decade ago, Larry provided pictures of three pair of grips he had purchased from the LAPD revolver club store and show clues to identify each.
First generation Hurst on the left, in the Blackford style but with the dip on the top right panel that is a styling clue for 1st and 2nd generation Hurst. 3rd generation Hurst are symmetrical left to right. Hurst generally have the largest bottom swell of any.
The inletting shows the straight cut at the doll's head that, of the LAPD grip makers, I've seen only from Hurst.
Hurst friend OIF2 wrote that Hurst would make grips in the style of the others for a customer not wanting to wait. When I see grips that look like somewhat odd Farrant or Hogue but with the straight cut, I suspect Hurst.
Late 2-piece Hogue in the middle with the "elephant ear" right panel from about 1977 - just before the introduction of the Monogrip.
Early 2-piece Hogue on the right in the style shown in the James Mason book Combat Handguns and his 1977 American Handgunner grip article.
The middle pair show the trademark Hogue inletting islands - but the right pair shows not all Hogue have them, and some Hurst do.
All of them would sometimes cut frames and/or add extra wood for a recoil shoulder (as Cooper called it) at the top of the frame.
Wish they had all labeled their grips like Herrett. Of course, the Del Rey grips are marked, but we still can't agree who made them....
