Stags?

M

Model12Win

Moderator
Anyone know of where to find stag grips for a Ruger's New Model Blackhawk sixgun? Always liked stag grips but know little about them. Anyone care to educate this old country boy on outfitting my Ruger with stags?

M12
 
Try Ajax, and Art Jewel.
Ajax has really good looking stag. They will require fitting.
I saw one set fitted with Ruger medallions that were beautiful.
 
Extremely cool. Does Patrick Grashorn offer grips that require no fitting?

EDIT: Just went to his site... EXTREMELY nice looking and the price is quite nice compared to from some other places.
 
Theses are from Patrick Grashorn:



Grashorn's on my New Frontier:



New Frontier with grips from Sack Peterson:



And, from Eagle Grips:



For best fit, send your grip frame for custom fitting. They do vary.



Bob Wright
 
Bob Wright, I think I hate you. I made up my mind that I didn't need another revolver, and then you post pictures like these, and within 30 seconds I'm scouring the interwebs for color case hardened Blackhawks.

You may get a bill from my wife.
 
There are variations grip frame to grip frame. Don't be intimidated by "fitting". In most cases it just means sanding the edges to match your grip frame and then re polishing the spots you sanded. You may just bolt them on and be happy with how they are. I've bought Ajax that were fine right out of the box. And I've bought grips that were intentionally oversized for custom fitting. It isn't hard.
 
Gang thanks a million, those Grashorns in Bob's photos look tops and the price seems good. I'll send in my grip frame as I'd rather have it expertly fit considering the expense of the material in question. I'm a bit of a klutz.

Also looking to El Paso for a Tom Threeperson's style holster and gun belt. Should have got into these single actions years ago. They're great!!
 
something to consider. I once saw a K frame smith with antler, I believe that it was moose, possibly caribou, I can't remember. It wasn't at all like deer/elk. It wasn't my taste, but it's something that you may want to look into.
 
I have a set of Grashorns on a S&W 639 and they are great looking grips. You wont be disappointed with his work.
 
stag

I consider myself pretty "country" as well, and far from an expert on stag grips, but I'll add what little I know. I'll qualify this right now by stating, .... "this is what I think I know".

Traditional stag grips and scales (knives) was often made from the antlers of the Sambar stag. The Sambar stag is an Asian deer, and has been transplanted to other locales that will support it. At some point in time it was on some type of US Gov't hit list and I do not believe any quantity could be imported into the USA. Accordingly true Sambar grips skyrocketed in price. I read that the Sambar can be hunted again, but real Sambar is still very expensive.

There were other "stag" options, including elk. These materials see more use as Sambar got scarce. Elk always looks a bit pale to me, and dark Sambar more attractive...........but that's me. I hear stag of anykind can be a bit brittle and not able to take the same level of abuse as hardwoods.
 
bamaranger said:
I consider myself pretty "country" as well, and far from an expert on stag grips, but I'll add what little I know. I'll qualify this right now by stating, .... "this is what I think I know".

Traditional stag grips and scales (knives) was often made from the antlers of the Sambar stag. The Sambar stag is an Asian deer, and has been transplanted to other locales that will support it. At some point in time it was on some type of US Gov't hit list and I do not believe any quantity could be imported into the USA. Accordingly true Sambar grips skyrocketed in price. I read that the Sambar can be hunted again, but real Sambar is still very expensive.

There were other "stag" options, including elk. These materials see more use as Sambar got scarce. Elk always looks a bit pale to me, and dark Sambar more attractive...........but that's me. I hear stag of anykind can be a bit brittle and not able to take the same level of abuse as hardwoods.
Click to expand...
Very cool, thank you for the info. I see Sambar stag grips from Eagle go for about $500... pretty for sure, but I can't afford that. I think the elk stag ones look pretty! I'll be sticking with .45 ACPs and standard .45 Colts in my Blackhawk (convertible model) but might try some Buffalo Bores for special purpose uses. Do you think they'll hold up okay?
 
They'll hold up fine before your hand goes out! Their flat resting against a metal frame. What kind of stress are they going to take?

You can always apply leather dye wash to the stags to color them antique or darker if you want. They can be shaped and polished out with 600 grit emery to a shine.

I know this is the revolver forum, but pertinent to the topic, these are some elk scales that Patrick Grashorn sent me to make for my Seecamp as he didn't have a Seecamp to work with. The scales had decent "bark" and I had to thin them down on the back side to retain the bark, and inlet to fit the gun.
This is before I put the antique wash on them. I liked them better after I antiqued them to a mellow yellow ochre.
attachment.php
 
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HighValleyRanch said:
They'll hold up fine before your hand goes out! Their flat resting against a metal frame. What kind of stress are they going to take?

You can always apply leather dye wash to the stags to color them antique or darker if you want. They can be shaped and polished out with 600 grit emery to a shine.

I know this is the revolver forum, but pertinent to the topic, these are some elk scales that Patrick Grashorn sent me to make for my Seecamp as he didn't have a Seecamp to work with. The scales had decent "bark" and I had to thin them down on the back side to retain the bark, and inlet to fit the gun.
This is before I put the antique wash on them. I liked them better after I antiqued them to a mellow yellow ochre.
attachment.php
Click to expand...
Looks good! Does the antiquing hold up or does it rub off?
 
It holds up, the dye goes into the grain of the stag. Best to start out diluted and go darker, because once you get it darker, the only way to make it lighter is sanding again.

I use a water base leather dye from Tandy's leathers from my leather work.
 
Sambar has nice color, and the things are huge. Getting a big scale, lots of color, very attractive was possible.

You want to be REALLY careful about using dyes, especially the alcoholic aniline dyes, they are very concentrated, and they penetrate very well, and you may wind up staining the stuff so badly that you would ruin it. Dilute it a whole lot if you try it and just use as many wipes as it takes. Believe me, you do not want to overdo it. That is something that you can't fix.

If you have access to black walnuts, wait until fall and use hulls for a dye. Using natural walnut dye with corn whiskey as a solvent would be totally cowboy.
 
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