Chris in the workshop                                           Munden Recoil Control Grips

 

The Grip Maker

At Chisel and Plane we strive to produce the best single action handgun grips possible for the collector and cowboy single action competitor.  Each pair of grips are made by hand in our workshop by professional Grip Maker D. Chris Whisler.  Chris has over 25 year experience in custom furniture making and woodworking.  During the 1990's Chris and his wife Peggy owned and operated a custom furniture business called Chisel and Plane Workshop and Gallery.  Chris also worked as a master woodworker at a grand piano restoration shop for many years.  To hand produce a set of single action grips is a labor intensive process.  Chris is a perfectionist (nice way of saying artistic nut) and takes great pride in his work.  Chris' parents started teaching him about firearms and firearm safety at a very early age.  At the age of five his parents held the gun for him and let Chris pull the trigger of a .22 Colt Trooper.  From that time on, he has been hooked on shooting.  Chris has owned and been shooting single actions almost his entire life.  He realizes the importance of a good pair of grips and how they should be made.  Single action grips need to feel and fit correctly in the hand as well as be appealing to the eye.  The grips are made from an array of woods and materials including many types of exotic woods.  Each set of custom grips is hand signed on the back of the grip panel.  Chris' motto has always been that nothing leaves the shop unless he would be willing to own it himself.

 

Types of Grips

• Munden Recoil Control Grip Panels - Bob Munden's special panel design to control recoil.  This is the same style grip design that Bob has used in competition and exhibition shooting for decades.  Munden Recoil grips have a raised area (pad) on top of the grip panels.  When holding the gun, the third (middle) finger rests under the raised pads.  This locks your hand in position on the grips and prevents the hand from moving up the backstrap while shooting, which is a common problem with single actions.  The raised pads, along with the curved shape and proper fit of the Munden Recoil Control Grip Panels, dramatically reduces the negative effects caused from recoil.  Don't be fooled by design imitations of these grip panels that are being manufactured by mass production, "one-size-fits-all" grip makers as they are not the same as the original Munden design that Chris makes in our shop for Bob and his customers.
• Standard Factory - Thickness and profile of original factory grips.
• Custom - Custom profile specified by customer.

Curved Not Flat Sides

Some of the modern single action grips currently on the market are flatter and have less of a curved profile.  We believe that this is a poor design, as there is no benefit from having a flat pair of SA grips.  If you hold your hand out and curl yours fingers like you would when shooting a revolver, you will see that the palm of your hand is not flat, instead it is curved (cupped) shaped.  Therefore, the grip panels need to have a nice round shape so that they can fill the palm of your hand for a good fit.  All of our grips (unless otherwise specified by the customer) have rounded, curved profiles including the Munden Recoil Control grips.

 

Proper Hand to Grip Fitting

Grip panels are not made of stretch material.  Therefore, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all grip panel.  Properly sized grip panels are critical for accurate shooting.  If your shots tend to pull to one side of the target, the problem might be the size of the grips you are using.  Trying to compensate for wrong size grip panels is like trying to ride a bicycle that is too tall or too small.  The only way to correct the problem is to purchase a custom pair of grips that fit your hand correctly.  Our Munden Recoil Control grip panels and Custom grips can be made to any thickness to fit any adult size hand (small, medium, large).

 

Grip size refers to the thickness of the grips.  Small equals thin and Large equals thick.  Size does not relate to width or the fit of the grips to the frame as single action grips are fitted flush with the grip frame unless they are special ordered to cover the grip frame.

 

When a shooter wraps his/her fingers around the grips of a single action, there should be a small gap between the tip of the finger to the meaty portion of the palm below the thumb.  If the tip of the finger pushes into or lays on top of the palm of the hand, the grip panels are too small (thin).  If the gap between the tip of the finger and palm is too wide, then the grip panels are too large (thick). 

 

One misconception about hand to grip fit is that large hands equals larger (thicker) grips.  When in fact it is usually the other way around.  A person with large (beefy thick) hands, actually needs smaller (thinner) grip panels because the extra flesh (fat or muscle tissue) on the palm of the hand acts like padding between the hand and grip panel resulting in less finger reach around the grips.  A shooter with slender (slim with little fat tissue) hands will have a greater finger reach around the grips and will need thicker grip panels.  Now remember, we are talking about the thickness of the hand, not just the overall size.  Finger length also has a lot to do with proper fit.  Long fingers equals greater finger reach and thicker grips.  Shorter fingers equals less finger reach and thinner grips.  The width of your hand doesn't have anything to do with the proper thickness of the grips because the width does not effect grip reach, but if you have a wide hand you might want to consider extended grips.  Another misconception is that women need smaller grips.  Woman often have slender hands with long fingers and will need larger grips.  It is not uncommon for a woman to have a longer trigger and grip reach than a man.  So much for the term "Girly Hands".

 

Customers may include grip size preference when ordering (small, medium or large).  Along with the size preference, customers are also encouraged to provide a tracing of their shooting hand when ordering.  You may also send an old pair of grips that you like the fit of, for Chris to use as a reference for the thickness of the new custom grips.  If no grip size preference or hand tracing is given, the grips will be made to a size medium.

 

Customers hand tracings and grip sizes are kept on file for future orders. 

 

How to Make a Hand Tracing:  Lightly place your shooting hand palm down on a sheet of paper with thumb and trigger finger spread apart, keeping the remaining three fingers together.  Hold the pencil straight up and down and trace a solid line around the hand and fingers from one side of your wrist to the other.  Without removing your hand from the paper, push down to apply pressure and make a dotted line up from your wrist to the pinky finger, this helps Chris to determine the amount of fat (there's that word again) tissue there is in your hand.

 

Accounting For Grip Frame Thickness Variations

Grip frame (backstrap and trigger guard) thickness varies from one firearm manufacture and/or model to another.  For each custom pair of Munden Recoil Control Grip Panels, Chris calculates this difference and adds or subtracts that measurement into the thickness for the size grips being made.  This means that if you have the same size grip panels on both a Colt SAA and a Ruger Blackhawk, both guns will have the same overall grip width dimensions.  One revolver's grips will not feel wider than the other because of the deference in grip frame thickness and will fit the hand the same. 

 

Beveled, Flat or Extended Bottoms

Unless otherwise noted or specified in a custom order, all of our SA grip panels are beveled (angled) at the bottom.  If you would prefer flat or slightly angled, please specify at time of order.

 

Have a wide hand?  Extended grips are also available for a small additional cost, see Price List page.

 

Photo below shows the three different styles of bottoms as seen if looking at the back of the grips.  Not drawn to any specifications, for demonstration purpose only.

 

One or Two Piece Grips

Chris can make one piece grips with no screw for Colt and Colt clones or two piece panel grips with a screw.  Your choice.

 

Fitted and Finished

Fitted means that the grips have been final fitted to your frame and are ready to be installed.  For the benefit of our customers and to ensure customer satisfaction, Chris will only final fit grip panels to Colt and Colt clones if the customer provides their firearm (backstrap, trigger guard and cylinder frame) for fitting.  This is due to tolerance variations in grip frames.  Grips for most Ruger single actions, can be fitted by sending just the Ruger grip frame and not the entire gun. 

Oversized Grip Kit

Oversized means the grips are not final fitted to a grip frame.  Grip Kits are made to order.  The grips will come with grip panel ferrules installed and grip screw but are not finished or fitted.  Please see our Grip Kit page for more information.

 

Wood

Only properly dried wood that has been carefully selected for the making of grips is used.  Some of the wood in our inventory has been stored in our heated shops for more than fifteen years.  Many grip blanks are bookmatched and numbered.  Below is a list of exotic and domestic wood that we try to keep in stock.  Let us know if you want a set of grips made from a wood type not listed, chances are we can get it.  Grips can also be made from wood you supply.  You can pick a set of grip blanks from our Wood Grip Blanks page or just tell Chris what kind of wood you want the grips made from at time of order and he will choose the  wood blanks for you.

 

Below is a list of woods that Chris makes grips from.  If you don't see the wood you are interested in,   contact us and we can probably get it. 

 

 Amboyna

 American Black Walnut - Plain and figured

 American Holly

 Bolivian Rosewood
 Claro Walnut - Plain and figured
 Cherry - Plain and Curly
 Cocobolo

 Ebony - Black and Brown

 Goncalo Alves
 Rosewood
 Maple - Plain, Birdseye, Curly, Burl and Spalted
 Mesquite

 Purpleheart
 ZebraWood

 

Other Grip Materials

Elephant Ivory, Red Stag, Buffalo Horn, Dymondwood and Micarta are available.

Checkering and Carving

Custom hand checkering and carving is available upon request.  Please contact Chris for prices and information.

 

Bookmatching

Grips can be made from wood that has been bookmatched.  Bookmatching is when a single board is re-sawn on it's edge to make two (or more) boards.  The two halves are then separated like opening a book.  This process creates two boards with grain patterns that mirror each other.  Bookmatched boards are most often seen on table tops, flat panels and other flat surfaces.  When shaping a pair of grips, some of the bookmatching mirrored effect will disappear as the wood is removed.  Even if the two grip panels might not look mirrored when finished, it will still be evident that the wood was bookmatched and also ensures that the color and grain will match on both grip panels.

 

   Bookmatched Walnut 

 

Quartersawn Wood

Quarter sawing is a method of sawing logs to make boards.  This method produces more waste and is therefore not as common as flat or plain-sawing.  It does however produce more stable wood with straighter grain lines and beautiful ray and fleck figure. 

 

Hardware

Hardware such as medallions, escutcheons (panel ferrules) and grip screws are new factory hardware.

Finish

Chris takes great care and time in the finishing of the grips.  Finish is an important process in the making of a good pair of single action handgun grips.  The finish not only effects the appearance but also the way that the gun feels in the hand.  Only the best quality finishing supplies are used in the finishing process.  The end product is a beautiful pair of grips with a natural, satin smooth look and feel.