Canadian Airgun Forum

Found some more nice walnut this week, I couldn’t resist taking a break of the rifle stock making. I’ve been wanting to give my Crosman 150 a nice set of wood grips for a while, the opportunity presented itself early this week. I came upon some small but nice pale curly walnut pieces that would make some real ’’chic’’ grips!

I sealed the wood as soon as I got it this week so it was easily workable this morning. I knew exactly what I wanted as for the style, so it wasn’t too long the final shape was carved out and sanded smooth. I like a thumb rest and a palm swell so that’s what I did, too bad the wood was only a 1/2’’ thick. But, they fit very nicely in the hand .

The grips are almost finished, now I just need to finish closing the grain and finish them smooth.

Hope you like the view!

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Seeing the condition of the grip frame in the pics makes me want to re-do it . I have some VHT bake-on wrinkled finish black paint, haven't used it yet, that's the best opportunity for a first .

Rear view of the grips:

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Those are nice hunks of tree! me like.

_________________

))))----//----------==
Iacio, ergo sum

Wow great work, i would not use black stain on it.

Neither would I, nor he... The paint is for the chipped up metal grip frame... I support the crinkle paint job. I actually was looking for crinkle paint for my bandit plastic grips, not confident about the "baking" though.

_________________

))))----//----------==
Iacio, ergo sum

Thanks for the nice words guys!

I applied the seventh coat of oil today, and you could actually see bubbles at the surface of the wood while the oil was sucked in, it's still very thirsty! Nice thing is it's darkening with each addditional coat of oil .

I started sanding the castings flashes on the grip frame today, should be able to finish it and paint and bake it tomorrow. While at it I'll also re-do the sights in satin black.

More to come.

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Some really nice work. Grips look sweet!
I'm looking forward to see how the paint turns out. I have some vht paint somewhere I had bought to paint old crosmans, then I went with the aluminum black instead.

Thank you killercrow! The wrinkled finish paint turned out real nice (hard to see well though in full sun light), but I applied juuuust a bit too much. The ''size'' of the wrinkles depends on the thickness of the paint, I applied 4 thin coats but 3 would have been better. I love the result nonetheless, and will re-use that paint for sure! The sights almost look new with a fresh coat of satin black, glad I re-did them too. (I used VHT Caliper satin black paint for the sights.)

Here are a few pics of the grip frame and sights before baking. I'll re-post pics of the parts when they're cooked lol!

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Looks good so far.
I baked some enamel paint on a mk1 frame, temperature at about 250f and I managed to get a bit of warping. It was nothing bad, just the end of the frame closed itself off a bit.

If you have some luck with the grip frames, I'll be giving it a try as well

VHT recommends baking the paint @ 200° F for an hour. I did a 2240 grip frame in satin black last year and saw no warping at this temp. I guess one must be cautious with potmetal when heating it however.

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

It's coming together rather nicely I think, my first try at wrinkled finish paint is decent. I now confirm that 3 light coats are more than enough for a nice finish, I shouldn't have put a fourth one. The wrinkles are very textured, a wee bit too much for my taste, but fortunately I didn't ruin it. Also I didn't notice any warping after the oven session.

The sights came out real nice and will pleasantly complement the newly painted grip frame and new wood grips . Some pictures of the baked parts:

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Today I finished quite a few details that were left to do on the pistol : repair and re-blue the buggered screw heads, clean and remove rust if needed from the OEM blued steel parts, de-burr, polish and re-lube the trigger parts. I also made some plastic shim washers for the trigger blade, so no more side play. Then the grip frame assy. was put back together ready to be bolted back on the tube.

I had the ’’upper’’ dis-assembled for a little clean-up, so I put it back together after a good mink oil treatment of the metal, along with a fresh coat of silicone grease on the TP seal. Also applied 2 drops of 30W ND oil to the hammer before re-assembly.

I can say I’m really satisfied with the final outcome of this ’’supposedly short job’’ lol! I seriously didn’t thought I’d go that far, I just wanted a nice set of wood grips at the start! Here are some picture of the finished pistol, with the OEM grips :

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Some more pics:

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?

Very nice resto job...well done!
I had intended on using the same VHT wrinkle paint on a 1300 Medalist frame..but wasn't sure of the results. Your work is testimony that it is a good choice and I'll go lightly with 2 application coats.

Hawk-i

_________________
Daystate Huntsman Regal XL .25
AA S510xs Carbine .22
Weihrauch HW77 SE .22
KRAL Puncher .177
CZ-200S lam. .177
Weihrauch HW50S Stl
Cometa Fusion .22
HatsanAT44&95 .22
FAS 6004T
Weihrauch HW44 .22
'HAVE GUN. WILL SHOOT'

Thank you Richard .

I did some checkering tests on a scrap piece of the same wood the grips are made of, in 16 and 20 LPI (lines per inch). The original checkering on the plastic grips is 16 LPI as far as I can measure, and it's easier to cut in this wood so I'll go with that. More to come.

_________________
If everything's so lovely yeah, then why don't I, why don't I, why don't I, why don't I feel lovely?