Black Colt Grip
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hawg
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They're not plastic, they're hard rubber. You can probably find a set on ebay.
1KPerDay
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Pretty sure mine are plastic… they may have been hard rubber 90 years ago but not likely now
hawg
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I had to look it up and the newer grips are plastic. I thought they were still hard rubber.
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Driftwood Johnson
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Howdy
Colt has been putting plastic grips on the SAA for a long time now.
The 7 1/2" 2nd Gen in this photo shipped in 1973, the 4 3/4" 2nd Gen shipped in 1963. I'm quite sure these are the grips that shipped with the guns. Notice the 7 1/2" Colt is wearing Eagle Grips, the 4 3/4" is not.
Colt is never going to tell you where they buy their grips.
You have already located some sellers who sell reproductions of Colt grips. Those outfits buy original grips and make a mold from them, then they cast new grips from their molds.
From what I have seen the quality is never quite as good as the quality of the original grips. Colt (or whoever is casting their grips) uses the Injection Molding process. This means creating hard tooling and casting the grips in an injection molding machine. Cutting hard tooling for Injection Molding molds is an expensive process.
From what I have seen, some of the companies making replicas are not using Injection Molding process, it is too expensive. They are probably making silicone molds and casting the grips with a two part resin. Much quicker and cheaper than the Injection Molding process.
I do see that River Junction states they are using hard urethane plastic for their grips. To me that means they are probably Injection Molding their grips.
Yup, $89.95.
There is an old saying: You get what you pay for. If you want cheaper you will probably not be getting the same quality.
Note that they say some fitting may be required. Back when Colt (and Uberti too) were using one piece wooden grips the grips were made slightly oversize. Then the grips would be installed to the backstrap and both the grips and the backstrap would be sanded together to achieve a perfect fit. This was done before the metal was blued. I suspect Uberti is still doing it this way with their one piece wooden grips. One piece plastic grips are not done the same way, but there may be some sanding involved to achieve a perfect fit.
Colt has been putting plastic grips on the SAA for a long time now.
The 7 1/2" 2nd Gen in this photo shipped in 1973, the 4 3/4" 2nd Gen shipped in 1963. I'm quite sure these are the grips that shipped with the guns. Notice the 7 1/2" Colt is wearing Eagle Grips, the 4 3/4" is not.
Colt is never going to tell you where they buy their grips.
You have already located some sellers who sell reproductions of Colt grips. Those outfits buy original grips and make a mold from them, then they cast new grips from their molds.
From what I have seen the quality is never quite as good as the quality of the original grips. Colt (or whoever is casting their grips) uses the Injection Molding process. This means creating hard tooling and casting the grips in an injection molding machine. Cutting hard tooling for Injection Molding molds is an expensive process.
From what I have seen, some of the companies making replicas are not using Injection Molding process, it is too expensive. They are probably making silicone molds and casting the grips with a two part resin. Much quicker and cheaper than the Injection Molding process.
I do see that River Junction states they are using hard urethane plastic for their grips. To me that means they are probably Injection Molding their grips.
Yup, $89.95.
There is an old saying: You get what you pay for. If you want cheaper you will probably not be getting the same quality.
Note that they say some fitting may be required. Back when Colt (and Uberti too) were using one piece wooden grips the grips were made slightly oversize. Then the grips would be installed to the backstrap and both the grips and the backstrap would be sanded together to achieve a perfect fit. This was done before the metal was blued. I suspect Uberti is still doing it this way with their one piece wooden grips. One piece plastic grips are not done the same way, but there may be some sanding involved to achieve a perfect fit.
hawg
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Uberti and Pietta both do it that way. I've bought take off grips for both and neither set fit close enough to make work.
hawg
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RetiredUSNChief
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Mizar
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Those River Junction grips do look fine, but they will require the entire surface to be polished and this is not something a novice can do with satisfactory results - you will need a soft buffing wheel with a light touch for the checkering and the ornaments. Sure you can leave them as they are, only fitted to the frame, but they will look ugly.
One-piece wood grips, IMO, give that "classic" look.
Here is my 1974 2nd Generation Colt, shown with the original Eagle grips it came with. It took me a long time to find a one-piece wood grip that would fit reasonably well. (Notice the small discrepancy at the bottom of the trigger guard.) When replacing two-piece grips with a one-piece grip, there's a locating pin that has to be driven out.
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I bought a set of these years ago. As I live nearby, I went over and picked then up. I tried them on my second generation Colt SAA and they didn't fit well. Quality was lower than original Colt grips. I later found a set in original Colt grips in local gunshop that fit with a little overhang. $50.
I later found a couple of sets on original Colt grips on eBay that were new, not takeoffs and bought them up.
Malachi Leviticus Blue
Member
Wood over plastic for sure.
I'm very much NOT a fan of plastic grips, but mostly I don't like plastic grips that are trying to imitate wood, bone, horn or ivory. That's just fake, and seems especially an abomination paired with black powder.
There is lots of inexpensive woods, bones and horns that can be used no need for plastic fake grips.
Now the black plastic grips being reffered to here don't really bother me, at worst they are trying to imitate hard rubber. Plastic seems like a fair alternative to me on these.
But I do think wood, bone or horn would be much better (looks, and feel) and you could make your own for much for less than the cost of those plastic ones and have something really nice.
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Look at lowest picture. They are right on. The first picture shows a scribe line I sanded them down to. No belt sanding or buffing.
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Now I’m looking at my wood grips… The Wood does not look too bad. And the coin is kidda cool but not needed. Didn’t realize that it takes so much fitting for a simple grip
hawg
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You think that's bad try fitting a set of grips to a Pietta or Uberti.
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