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These need DWFAN attention but new to me



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Non-relieved cokes

These are one of just a few known cokes lacking the "football" cutout on the left panel as made famous by the prototype 44 Magnums. Yes, DWFAN restored these to perfection.
 

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I certainly don't have the really neat stuff that people have already listed in this thread but I hope the few things I am including in these three sequential posts are of interest.

I realize that linking images to holding sites elsewhere on the net would allow me to include larger, hi-res pictures of these grips but if those links are ever broken, or those sites ever "go away", or if one's contractual agreements with them ever end or expire, such references would be lost. So I will keep to my use of attachments to this post (alone) for this way the "attachments are forever" (or at least until this site itself decides that they are not).

But as a result, I am limited to 5 images per post so I hope these make sense.

I have always been a fan of "striped" grips so here are three photos of three such stocks that also represent three different "versions" as well: the original format; the so-called "football" style that made allowances for ejection; and finally, the radically relieved type that allowed clearance for a speedloader. I am including a left side view (that allows for differentiation of "type"), a right side view and a bottom view (to show the attempts by the people in the Stocking Department at the factory to match the two sides or halves).

Recently, a very good friend from the Midwest came across a short-barreled Lew Horton Model 24 in really nice shape but without its original grips. So in an effort to help him out (he had always been helpful to me) I rummaged through my stuff and came up with a number of factory N-Frame combats, two of which are pictured here in the photos that close out this Post.

The earlier type is more representative of those made back when that Horton gun was offered. The later type is more like grip offered during the MagnaClassic period. Both fit the hand well (albeit differently) and both are representative of the kind of figuring seen before the factory moved away from Goncalo Alves and on to Pau Ferro for its mainstay decorative grip material.

Unfortunately, in the 2D (two dimensional) photography seen here, the affect the grain has on the early stocks is lost. Personally, I think that they are attractive because of the striping but the real deal here is the slimming affect forward and the fattening affect rearward that the "grain" provides. It's obviously an illusion but a good one (the light-to-dark effect makes the grips appear more handfilling while tapered to match the hand as well) and it is something that I would like to think was on the mind of the stockmakers back on the day that the blanks were selected and cut up to make these. They are really neat.

Not that I can complain about the later type also seen here for while flatter and less contoured than the earlier style, they still have a nice coloring and again a wonderful grain (the "striping") that I like so much.
 

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I certainly don't have the really neat stuff that people have already listed in this thread but I hope the few things I am including in these three sequential posts are of interest.

I realize that linking images to holding sites elsewhere on the net would allow me to include larger, hi-res pictures of these grips but if those links are ever broken, or those sites ever "go away", or if one's contractual agreements with them ever end or expire, such references would be lost. So I will keep to my use of attachments to this post (alone) for this way the "attachments are forever" (or at least until this site itself decides that they are not).

But as a result, I am limited to 5 images per post so I hope these make sense.

When I was with the company, we were always experimenting with things and the Engraving Department was routinely using wood in a more traditional manner (especially in the work intended for the international market) and while we, in the U.S., seemed wed to lacquer (and later, polymer finishes), the rest of the planet still made guns with oil finishes. Here are three images of two "factory" (not aftermarket) target stocks finished in that manner. They show both sides and the bottom; again to indicate the company's belief in matching the two halves.

Jumping from the oil finish that I like so much, I figured that I would include two things that I see referred to very often in different places on this Site and elsewhere.

First is a still sealed blister pack of Goncalo Alves "Target Stocks", which if removed from their packaging, would (to many people) somewhat resemble Rosewood. I apologize for the lack of clarity through the plastic wrap for while still sealed, they do date back to the 1980's.

If what I publish here catches the interest of those reading this thread, I will rummage further through my stuff to find not only more pre-packaged items (hopefully in clearer condition) but also more rosewood-looking items to post. (I also have several pair of factory maple stocks here somewhere too.)

I keep reading about how certain "combat" grips are hard to find. I don't stay on top of such things but here is a box full of J-Frame Combats that I thought you might find interesting. While the K (L) and N frame versions appeared on the guns from the factory with great regularity, I don't believe that the J-Frame versions were as commonly encountered.
 

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3 of 3

I certainly don't have the really neat stuff that people have already listed in this thread but I hope the few things I am including in these three sequential posts are of interest.

I realize that linking images to holding sites elsewhere on the net would allow me to include larger, hi-res pictures of these grips but if those links are ever broken, or those sites ever "go away", or if one's contractual agreements with them ever end or expire, such references would be lost. So I will keep to my use of attachments to this post (alone) for this way the "attachments are forever" (or at least until this site itself decides that they are not).

But as a result, I am limited to 5 images per post so I hope these make sense.

In the 80's and 90's, Smith was making commemoratives for everybody they could and one of these days, I will post something about the more interesting and abstract items that sprang out of those efforts. But in this thread and in closing out my three posts as I opened them (with an entry dealing with factory stocks with lacquer-type finishes), I figured that I would highlight this pair that was part of a U.S. Marshal offering from back then. In fact, looking at the inletting in picture #3, I believe that they were part of the prototyping for that project.

Finally, as I saw another contributor to this thread include pearl grips, I thought that I would include these two shots here. For while I too, have a postwar 2" K-frame with pearl stocks around here someplace, I figured that this one (a legitimate and very unusual gun itself) might be more successful in waking up the readers otherwise bored with me and the things I have listed.

If anything I have posted in these three items has woken up enough people and created enough interest, I will come back with a few more things that might also be of merit. In the mean time, I hope that you have enjoyed what I have shown so far.
 

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WOW I'm late to the party and there are sure some mind bogglers shown above. Many thanks for sharing your favorite grips, I love em all!

I've posted many of these pics over the past couple of years. My special grips are mostly attached to revolvers. As a custom gunmaker I've made many sets of custom stocks over the years but now Only do it as a hobby.

These magnas were made for my brother from English walnut and shipped to him yesterday. Shown on a 25-5, 4". Checkered 25 lpi.
LeftGrip-.jpg

WithElPaso-.jpg


Sanderson grips on a triple-lock target for shooting.
Withtarget--1.jpg


Custom ordered English walnut Keith Brown grips ( I supplied the wood) on a 5" pre-27. Special request 24 lpi checkering.
PRE-27ROPERHOLSTER-.jpg


Custom English walnut magnas from my workbench on a 1950 .45 Military.
HDCheckeredwalnutElPaso-.jpg


Herrett rosewood Troopers on a M-28.
M-28THUMBWITHHOLSTER-.jpg


Custom English walnut magna grips on a birth year and month M&P, they usually live on my favorite Combat Masterpiece.
MP43-51-copy.jpg


English walnut magna on a 25-5, 6".
M-25Customgrips-.jpg


A chunk of exhibition English walnut I swapped to Keith. (look familiar anyone?)
FrontBest-.jpg


Four N frames with custom wood, 2-KB Ropers and 2 of my own magnas.
FourNFrames-.jpg


Sanderson thumbrest on 1932 vintage K-22.
SandersonleftonOutdoors-.jpg


KB Combats on a M-13, the pick-up gun.
KBWITHHOLSTER-.jpg


Custom extension targets on a 3rd Model single shot (made more than 20 years ago when I refinished the gun) 32lpi checkering.
BottomGripLabled-.jpg

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My first KB Ropers on a 1954 K-38. Favorite of all my grips!
KBGRIPSBOTTOM-.jpg

KBGRIPSCUSTOMR-.jpg
 
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WOW I'm late to the party and there are sure some mind bogglers shown above. Many thanks for sharing your favorite grips, I love em all!

SDH,

late you are, but at least you are fashionably late :D
 
Mr. Nash,

Thank you for your posts, they always bring back fond memories of Smiths gone by.

I would love to know more about that beautiful Smith with the pearl grips. Is that a First Model Hammerless ?

Thank you again,

Desmond
 
1/1

As I said in my previous, three sequential messages (above), I certainly don't have the really neat stuff that other people have posted in this thread but I hope the few things I have already included were of interest and that these are too.

Also as before, I realize that linking images to holding sites elsewhere on the net would allow me to include larger, hi-res pictures of these grips but if those links are ever broken, or those sites "go away", or if one's contractual agreements with them end or expire, such references would be lost. So I will keep to my use of attachments to this post (alone) for that way the "attachments are forever" (or at least until this site itself decides that they are not).

However, as a result, I am limited to 5 images per post so I hope that the ones I have decided to include make sense.

In the first of those three earlier posts, I explained that I have always been a fan of "striped" grips. So here are four photos of later stocks from the 1980's and 90's that represent such graining but in the still darker Goncalo Alves of the past before it got lighter and lighter and lost so much of its distinctive figuring that it was abandoned in favor of the Pau Ferro that replaced it.

Note also that the square butt Combat Stocks in Pictures One and Two also represent the factory's experimenting with oil finishes that I mentioned in the second of my three original messages. Not something one usually sees apart from the engraved guns or the European models to which they generally attached.

I slipped a set of checkered, J-Frame, Walnut Service Stocks into Pictures Three and Four to hopefully show that such detailing sometimes extended beyond the more exotic woods and the Target and Combat stocks with which such things are normally associated. Hopefully also of interest in those two shots, are the nicely figured J-Frame, Goncalo Alves Target Stocks (they are really pretty) and the uncheckered Goncalo Magnas. Note that in Picture Four, I have purposely offset the two halves of that last set so that you can see the seam that's formed between them that is not visible in Picture Three.

That's because I didn't have the space here to include bottom views of these six grips like I had in my first two posts (the last time) to show you the care they used in the Stocking Department to match things up back then. This time you will just have to visualize things a bit but I think that if you compare the first picture to the second and the third to the fourth, you will find that again, it appears that those folks still did a fine job with this batch too.

As far as matching things up, you'll have to take my word that I do possess both halves of all four "pairs" that I am showing in Picture Five. My thrown-together setup wouldn't allow me to position them up in the manner as the others but I hope you get the idea: for while not striped or even that highly figured, each of these is unique in its own way either because of their finish or the wood being used.

And for those of you in the Collector's Association who read my story on their side of this Site a couple of years ago about how the Boot Grip came about at S&W, the older, smooth Rosewood stocks seen in this group (note the smaller period screw hole) are one of the sets from an old (very old) carry gun of mine that figured into that project, which I mentioned in it.

Once again, I hope that you have enjoyed what I have included here in an effort to show some less-than-commonly encountered factory stocks.
 

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As a custom gunmaker I've made many sets of custom stocks over the years but now Only do it as a hobby.

Custom extension targets on a 3rd Model single shot (made more than 20 years ago when I refinished the gun) 32lpi checkering.
BottomGripLabled-.jpg

RightCloseLabled-.jpg

SDH: I have always loved your work and have followed you in various magazines and on the forum here for many years. I have a particular affinity for those beautiful stocks on the single shot Perfected 3rd model - those have always been one of my favorite sets.


A chunk of exhibition English walnut I swapped to Keith. (look familiar anyone?)
FrontBest-.jpg

As to the English Walnut chunk that you swapped to Keith, perhaps these stocks were "given birth" from that chunk by Mr. Brown's masterful touch:

KBTargetL.jpg

KBTargetR.jpg

KBTargetRight.jpg


One more set of Factory stocks that you do not see very often - a set of Large Medallion Pre-War K-Frame Service Stocks:

PrewarKStocks611670OS.jpg


PrewarKStocks611670.jpg


And next to a "normal" set of pre-war K-Frame stocks for comparison purposes:

PrewarKStocksLSComparison.jpg
 
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