Post by HeadHunter on Aug 17, 2022 13:18:51 GMT
I recently purchased another cheap set of wooden grips from a cheap Chinese retailer, they were actually from a Turkish company called 'Turkish Pottery' which some of you may have also seen selling on eBay. On the Chinese website they are about half the price that you pay from feebay, so I opted to go for the cheaper option and see how long they took to arrive, the site told me that they would take about a month to arrive from Turkey, well less than ten days later and they were delivered !
The grips are available here....
www.aliexpress.com/item/10000284825133.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.0.0.697cf19cR7rLHm
They had been reduced from £20 (ish) to about £15 and then the website gave me another couple of quid off, so with the free delivery it seemed too good an offer to refuse !
They look good wrapped in leather too (doesn't everything, lol)....
The COLT symbol is embossed with a raised gold lettering on a matt black background, it's not wood and looks very much like a separate medallion that has been fitted to the grip panel. Unfortunately the final coat of varnish (or whatever) that they've used on the grips has 'spotted' onto the medallion in places but this is only visible if you look for it. The gold is highly metallic looking and certainly catches the light, I originally thought that it would be just gold painted wood so I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be something better.
Fitting issues.
Obviously I had to dremel the backside of the grips to allow for the CO2 hump from the magazine, which was easy enough to do, especially as I've done this so many times now that I've actually lost count !
The left side fitted straight on with a nice reassuring 'snap' as it went over the top bushing and once the screws were insert and driven home the grip panel was secure and flush to the frame.
The right side was a slightly different story, the upper hole needed to be reamed out slightly to accept the bushing properly and once I fitted the screws the grip panel was still slightly loose. I tried tightening the screws all the way to the top of the bushing and still the play was there ! It was then that I realised that the grip panel wasn't deep enough, after a bit of contemplation, a cup of coffee and much head scratching I realised that I could either file down the bushing (which really is a NO-NO) or find another solution. In the end I worked out that all it needed was a spacer to be inserted underneath the screw, I found a couple of M4 split washers (aka lock washers) in the workshop, removed the offset on the washer to make it flat and fitted them underneath the screws. They went in the hole perfectly but wouldn't go over the grip bushing but once I tightened the screws up it forced them into the correct position and secured the grips flush to the frame.
Now I don't know whether that was a 'one off' issue, especially as the left panel fitted perfectly or whether the real steel has a slight difference in the left to right, which I very much doubt, so I'm guessing that I was probably just unlucky and got a 'duff' grip panel.
Overall verdict.
I am very happy with them, in fact I'm so happy that I think that I will be sticking with these ones. They look really great on my gun and I would recommend them to any other 1911 owners as a worthy grip panel for a custom 1911, they might not be suitable for a period correct version but certainly a great choice for a custom model. So my never ending continuous search for a nice set of 1911 wooden grips is finally over and I can now concentrate my free web browsing shopping time on revolver related things, lol
The grips are available here....
www.aliexpress.com/item/10000284825133.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.0.0.697cf19cR7rLHm
They had been reduced from £20 (ish) to about £15 and then the website gave me another couple of quid off, so with the free delivery it seemed too good an offer to refuse !
They look good wrapped in leather too (doesn't everything, lol)....
The COLT symbol is embossed with a raised gold lettering on a matt black background, it's not wood and looks very much like a separate medallion that has been fitted to the grip panel. Unfortunately the final coat of varnish (or whatever) that they've used on the grips has 'spotted' onto the medallion in places but this is only visible if you look for it. The gold is highly metallic looking and certainly catches the light, I originally thought that it would be just gold painted wood so I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be something better.
Fitting issues.
Obviously I had to dremel the backside of the grips to allow for the CO2 hump from the magazine, which was easy enough to do, especially as I've done this so many times now that I've actually lost count !
The left side fitted straight on with a nice reassuring 'snap' as it went over the top bushing and once the screws were insert and driven home the grip panel was secure and flush to the frame.
The right side was a slightly different story, the upper hole needed to be reamed out slightly to accept the bushing properly and once I fitted the screws the grip panel was still slightly loose. I tried tightening the screws all the way to the top of the bushing and still the play was there ! It was then that I realised that the grip panel wasn't deep enough, after a bit of contemplation, a cup of coffee and much head scratching I realised that I could either file down the bushing (which really is a NO-NO) or find another solution. In the end I worked out that all it needed was a spacer to be inserted underneath the screw, I found a couple of M4 split washers (aka lock washers) in the workshop, removed the offset on the washer to make it flat and fitted them underneath the screws. They went in the hole perfectly but wouldn't go over the grip bushing but once I tightened the screws up it forced them into the correct position and secured the grips flush to the frame.
Now I don't know whether that was a 'one off' issue, especially as the left panel fitted perfectly or whether the real steel has a slight difference in the left to right, which I very much doubt, so I'm guessing that I was probably just unlucky and got a 'duff' grip panel.
Overall verdict.
I am very happy with them, in fact I'm so happy that I think that I will be sticking with these ones. They look really great on my gun and I would recommend them to any other 1911 owners as a worthy grip panel for a custom 1911, they might not be suitable for a period correct version but certainly a great choice for a custom model. So my never ending continuous search for a nice set of 1911 wooden grips is finally over and I can now concentrate my free web browsing shopping time on revolver related things, lol
