PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU ORDER!
- All Grips Kits are semi-finished
- You will need to fit and finish most grips
- Instructions are provided, and available on-line
- Grips are flat-backed: some need relief cuts
- Alignment pin holes will need to be made
- Some grips use spacers you epoxy to backs
- Each grip listing describes what you receive
- All Grip Panels are polymer epoxy resin
- Withstand over 450-deg.F
- Resistant to fading, yellowing
- Over 3000 psi tensile strength!
- Easily sanded, drilled, and carved
- Can be made to look like:
- Wood
- Pearl in any color
- Ivory or Aged Ivory
- Ebony
- Gutta Percha
- Hard or soft rubber
- Jade
- Bronze, pewter, brass
- Gold, silver, other metals
- Terms "gold", "ivory", "pearl", etc. refer to color only.
- You can select medallions for most grips
- Round Medallion options are listed
- Only Medallions shown are available
- You can tell which grip fits your gun:
- Compare dimensions with your gun frame
- Do not order unless you have checked dimensions
- To make sure, send a tracing around your grips
- A fax or picture of your grips is not enough
- Faxed images can be distorted and misleading
- Actual pencil tracings give true dimensions
- A stiff paper cut-out to fit your gun is best
- Many listed grips fit more than models mentioned
- The below are all reasons a tracing is important:
- Guns may have different size frames for the same model
- Most import copies vary in grip frame shape, size
- Later models are sometimes built with prior model frames
- All grips are cast in molds
- I don't do custom checkering or carving
- Realistic stag horn is part of mold
- If it isn't listed, I don't have it.
- You can order any color for any grip.
- The backs are flat as shipped.
- The back may need to be sanded for thickness.
- The pin locating hole will need to be made.
- This saves you money and gives better fit.
- The styles you see are what is available
- Make SURE dimensions and image match your gun
- Do NOT order simply by model: guns vary within models
- I cannot "put carving" like one grip on another grip
- If you order a smooth grip, I can't "make it checkered"
- If you order a checkered grip, I can't "make it smooth"
- The grip you see is the shape and size you get
- I do not work on other people's products
- I can't put my medallions in your grips
- I can't put your medallions in your grips
- The reason: I can't replace them if I make an error
- If you want to send grips to copy, please e-mail first
- Shipping prices:
- All orders sent in the USA are $8.50 shipping
- All orders sent to other countries are $37 shipping
- Any number of grips can be sent together at same price
- USA Shipping is Priority Flat Rate with delivery confirmation
- Other shipping is International Express Mail with tracking
- I don't use other shipping: these are safest for the price
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What am I getting and what do I need?
Customer satisfaction runs close to 99% because most people read and understand what they are ordering. These are semi-finished kits, and normally require some sanding, drilling the pin locating hole, polishing and buffing, and possibly some routing on the back with a "Moto-Tool" or other rotary hobby grinder to make clearance cuts for at the top for controls. They are NOT completely ready to drop onto your gun! They are 90% ready. You need to do the other 10%. You are buying a grip kit.
Why semi-finished kits? Because only the person holding the gun can fit the grips perfectly to it.
There are excellent gripmakers and gunsmiths who will fit grips to your gun for you, if you don't want to. I make my grip kits for both gunsmiths and folks who feel comfortable doing a little fitting and routing, sanding and buffing (full instructions are provided). I also make blanks and generic grips that can be fitted to a number of different guns, which are identified as such.
Some grips need very little finishing. But even simple panel inserts or 1911-style grips may benefit by being sanded on the back to make them evenly matched in thickness or buffed to add luster. Other grips may need more extensive fitting. Each specific listing page explains about the particular grip model shown. Be sure to read what each grip listing says, and compare the dimensions given with your gun before deciding what to order!
What Tools Do You Need?
- A fingernail sanding board with coarse and medium grit. This is all you need 90% of the time with most grips, or any grip that doesn't need relief or alignment pin holes on the back, in colors, checkered or carved style grips.
- A small amount of abrasive paper in 400, 600, and 800 grit if you want to apply a shined finish rather than a light matte finish (I like the matte for ivory, easier to hold and less slippery). This is usually reserved for pearl and metallic effect grips.
- A small amount of very fine wet-and-dry abrasive paper in 1200, 2200, and finer grit for polishing pearl grips. If you have a buffer and some white jeweler's rouge, so much the better. But it isn't necessary.
- A rotary hand tool similar to the "Moto-tool" or Dremmel hobby hand grinder, with the standard set of burs, for grips that might need routing or relief grooves on the back. In a pinch you can use a drill press with a small end mill, but you must secure the grip or it will be jerked around.
- A small drill bit matching the size of an alignment pin on the frame of your Ruger, Colt, or S&W, etc., which you can turn by hand with a T-wrench or chuck up in a drill but turn the drill by hand to make a precise, shallow hole in the back of the grip. (Going after it with power on without experience usually results in the bit pulling right through the grip...better to go slow and easy, and have no problem.)
An easy way to make pin holes is with a small burr in the rotary hand tool, since the burr has no tendancy to "pull into" the material like a twist drill does.
- A "Magic Marker" pen to "paint" high spots and transfer them to the grip back, when making relief cuts, marking pin hole locations with pins that can't be tapped out of the gun, "painting" the backside of a grip to indicate when it is sanded perfectly flat, and other handy tasks.
- A roll of cellophane tape, so you can put it on the gun frame to protect it from final sanding to exact fit (with grips installed, light strokes of the sanding board can be used to finalize the grip size, just until you scruff the tape lightly).
- A small amount of acetone to use as a clean-up solvent for any epoxy glue that gets where it shouldn't. Acetone does not affect the polyurethane resin from which the grips are made, but it does dissolve 5-minute epoxy glue easily. (You don't need this unless you get a kit that uses spacers, fillers, or blocks which are glued to the grip backs.)
- A small size package of 5-minute epoxy glue, of the kind which comes in two tubes and are mixed in equal parts. This is only needed if you get grips requiring spacers, such as the single action 1-piece kits which come as two panels and a spacer, or for grips that uses spacer blocks to keep them from rotating about a single mounting screw, or for attaching grip extensions or fillers at the base. Each grip kit has a description page which tells you about any additions using epoxy glue.
(The epoxy glue works very well if you (a) folllow the mixing directions, (b) clean the back of the grips and matching spacer surface with acetone, and (c) let the epoxy cure before moving the parts.)
Why a Tombstone Grip is far stronger than "factory" plastic grips:
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Factory grips are usually made of thermo-setting plastic, which is melted, pushed into a mold under pressure, chilled to set, and ejected. They will melt or warp if you heat them enough. The Tombstone Grips are not thermo-setting. They are an epoxy resin which is created by chemical reaction and will handle up to 450-degrees F., far hotter than your truck or glove box even on the hottest day in the middle of Arizona.
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Also, the grips are solid, not a shell or skeleton grip as with many injection molded styles. Of all the broken original grips people have sent to me to match with a Tombstone Grip, most have been brittle, thin shells warped or cracked across a screw hole or at one corner from being dropped. Tombstone Grips can normally be dropped without damage from the impact. Prop departments put Tombstone Grips on non-firing reproduction guns in the entertainment industry, because the guns are often thrown, dropped on rocks, tossed on the street, etc., during the action, and the director does not want pieces of grip distracting the audience! A grip that doesn't break easily and also costs less than ones that do provides a double value.
Since a Tombstone grip has no grain to split and chip, it is easier to checker and carve than wood grips. You are saving money because you don't have to pay for the final 10% of the fitting and finishing. The greatest labor cost is in that final 10% of the work. That's why Tombstone Grips are so much in demand, but they are NOT ready to drop on your gun in most cases. Please make sure that is clearly understood before you buy! But don't be concerned about fitting: you can do it -- thousands of others have!
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All grip kits are made to your order for colors, special effects, and medallions listed on the drop down menus on the grip listings. Please read the terms of sale before ordering and make sure you understand and agree.
To my thousands of Tombstone customers over the years, THANK YOU for your repeat orders! You've proven that shooters are clever enough to save money by doing a little fitting and finishing, getting a better fit than factory mass production tolerances. For quicker delivery, check out the in-stock specials!