Super weird wood for my ROA

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AbitNutz

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I've approached the Chisel and Plane Workshop (which is close enough by), they make Munden's gunfighter grips, to make some for me. I'm hoping the wood I have is workable. I managed to come by a bookend set of blanks that are made of Australian Buloke. If you're not familiar with this this wood, don't feel bad. It's pretty rare and is the hardest and most dense wood known. On the janka hardness scale hard maple is 1400. This stuff is over 5000. Drop it in water and it sinks.

It is really unique and very attractive. I'm hoping that the owner of C&P, Chris Wisler, is up for a challenge. I've had a brief conversation with him and I'm going to drop over after I get my ROA back from Clements...he's doing some work on the sights.

Has anyone else had grips made of weird material?
 
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Making a set of Purple Heart (Amaranth) for a Rogers & Spencer right now
Really frikken hard and sneezy
IMG_7490_zps33ab8a04.jpg
IMG_7491_zps3f9ddadf.jpg
First thing they did was eat the bearings out of my bandsaw:banghead:
 
I like purple heart its a nice looking wood but man that stuff is HARD

At first i thought it was blood wood.

There is a wood shop pretty close to where i live that has a bunch of exotic woods i should lookf or a section and make a set of grips.
 
Not on any of my BP guns ,but I have a dan wesson RZ10 with Corian grips, and my delta elite gold cup has camel bone and bubinga grips.

coltglockSWs002.jpg

danwesson005.jpg
 
decades ago, there was a place in Fairfax VA called Colonial Hardwoods, that sold odd and bizarre woods for hobby and custom use. I saw a really nice pistol stock size piece of coco bola and near choked to death when I turned it over and saw the price.

Up at Blue Ridge Rifles in PA, the firewood in the early 1980's was cut offs from a casket company that imported and finished their own wood. I got some beautiful pieces of 5/4 Mahogany out of the firewood pile.

I do have a multicolored piece of wild damson that has alternating rings of orange and purple. It would only be big enough for some grips.

That purple heart is really nice looking.
 
Keep your eyes open for good wood.
I was a printer and bought paper on pallets. One of the empty pallets caught my eye. The entire top of the pallet was 6 -8" wide pieces, 36" long and a full 1" thick of birds eye maple.
I sold the entire thing to a local gun builder for enough to go a long way toward buying a 45 cal percussion rifle.
 
Like an uncut diamond, this picture doesn't do the wood justice. It is incredibly tight grained and is heavy. If you wet it a bit, all the tiger like stipes really come out. I just hope my grip maker can work with it. It's called Australian Buloke and on the Janka scale of wood hardness it is at the very top at 5050. for reference, hard maple is at 1400 and Hickory is at 1800. The pieces are bookended and just large enough to make a set of grips for my ROA....I hope.

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I had Chris make a set of American holly grips for my colt navy. They are some of the best looking and fitting grips I have seen on any revolver. You picked the right man for the job. If the wood you have in mind is workable, I'm sure you will be pleased with the results.

Chaz
 

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toolslinger said:
Making a set of Purple Heart (Amaranth) for a Rogers & Spencer right now
Really frikken hard and sneezy
IMG_7490_zps33ab8a04.jpg
IMG_7491_zps3f9ddadf.jpg
First thing they did was eat the bearings out of my bandsaw:banghead:
Click to expand...
How did you bring out so much purple? Is the wood wet? or did you finish it with something that makes the purple pop like that?
 
I took mine apart last night and re timmed it and i must say you did a fine job on those grips.

The curve on the bottom are darn near perfect, i dont know if i can do that good of a job.


How does yours shoot?

Mine was releasing the bolt to soon and it was putting a little line in the cylinder kinda like the colt.
 
Be sure to always us a dust collector and a respirator when cutting or sanding exotic woods. Many of them are dangerous to your health. A lot have natural insecticide.

Cheers,

ts
 
A lot of the Rockler wood working stores have a good selection of exotic woods. And they'll usually cut a foot off and sell you just enough to make a couple sets of grips. I got a beautiful piece of Lacewood for about $7 the other day, enough to make 2 sets of revolver grips.
 
Bower, purpleheart really is that purple. Even the freshly cut raw wood looks like some kid spilled their grape juice on it. And an oil or varnish is just going to enhance that purpleness.

If that boluke wood works like some of the similarly hard and dense woods that I've done then I hope that the shop is OK with metal working options for tools. Once you get to a given point the wood is far more like metal than wood and it cuts more like aluminium or hard dense plastics than wood.
 
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