Come Into Bawanna's Famous Grip Emporium

[Bawanna]

We could do all that. I was figuring on leaving the mag bottom just a tad long so you could fit to the magwell.

I just cut out a set today but guess wrong and went full size, I have enough coco bolo for one more set but it's also quite light in color, lot of yellowish to it. It's pretty and I know it will darken over time but we'll look for some darker wood.

[dao]

How does cocobolo take stain Colonel?

[Bawanna]

Never tried it. Almost sacrilege. It's so pretty naturally and generally dark and gets richer and darker with age, I've never thought of it.
I don't think it would stabilize very well either and really doesn't need it as it's dense and not the slightest bit dry.

[dao]

Can you post a pic of the piece you have? Sorry, I did not know that cocobolo was naturally colored as it is.

[Bawanna]

Coco Bolo varies a whole bunch. Sometimes pretty solid color, other times like Zebra wood. The one thing always the same is you can smell the kind of sickly sweet smell and taste it when you working it. Fingers will get numb etc. Damn I love the stuff.

All these in the picture are Coco Bolo.

The two pens were made at the same time. The one on the right I used at work every day. Probably put half a dozen ink refills in it and you can see how much darker it got from handling.
The grips I just cut out this afternoon are already darkening. The two slabs on the left will probably be much lighter after working it but will probably eventually be that dark again.

[Bawanna]

Well today is Mesquite Friday. I stumbled onto a piece that was pretty nice. Thought I'd run out so a nice thing.
Pounded these out this morning. No goofs to mess me up. Quite happy. I decided to make these with standard bushings. I'd like to perfect making thin as possible with standard bushings. I hate swapping bushing out on my own guns and taking the chance of messing up the threads. We'll see how that goes.
Anyhow here's some photo evidence. Some with oil, some without, I put the magwell piece I got not long ago on for kicks as I found that with Wilson mags metal baseplates they are just about flush, so not making the gun any bigger. Always kind of confused me how people take a little gun and want to make it big, or take a big gun and make it small?????? See that alot. Just get both and don't mess with mother nature.
Anyhow not sure which pic is which so might be in random order.
One of the pictures is my hand where you can see how the wood works it's way into the blood stream, probably why I am the way I am. Don't wear gloves so scratch that idear right in the bud.
More pics in the next post.

[Bawanna]

Additional pics that wouldn't fit.

[Bawanna]

Mesquite is kind of soft, so these won't be getting the checkering. I checkered the grips for the guy that sent me this wood, so it can be done but probably wouldn't hold up well.

[BirdsThaWord]

I like the rugged, almost antique look of that wood. If you ever don’t like them, I’ve heard that kind of wood makes for some good bbq. Hmmmmm… bbq gun! I like the sound of that!
Seriously though, on the overall shape: I like how pronounced the plunger tube cover area is up top. I also like how they start right at the front strap.
If in the future I can ever get you to make me a custom set, those are 2 features I definitely want.

[BirdsThaWord]

By the way, that’s a pretty slim magwell. Does not add as much as some that I’ve seen. I think doa has shown us just how good those things look on these compacts. Goes well on yours too.