Specialty and classical woods we use for custom and reproduction handgun grips: Costs will vary, ask for a quote.

above: An S&W Schofield shown with a pair of our hand-crafted grips, made just like the originals and taken from American walnut that was cut 125+ years ago. This pair are about 95% finished and as yet, are un-marked.

below: One-piece grip for the Colt Single Action Army crafted from exotic snakewood.

 Bocote (Cordia spp.) Spectacular background colors of dark brown to red with multicolored strips that vary from yellow to orange and green to dark brown. Machines well, excellent turning stock. Somewhat hard to find material from Mexico and Central America

Ebony, Macassar (Diospyros celebica) Dark brown to black heartwood with contrasting bands of yellow to golden brown. Very hard, dense, and heavy, it can be very brittle at its heart. Used for high-end cabinetry, inlay work, musical instruments, or decorative applications.

Ebony, Gaboon (Diospyros spp.) Jet black color with the possibility of dark brown to tan streaks. Very hard, dense, and heavy, it can be very brittle at its heart. Somewhat difficult to machine, but worth the reward. From Africa. We have very small quantities left from a batch that was sawn about 200 years ago. Extraordinarily high quality-this is not like the wood cut in modern times!

Maple, Burl (Acer macrophyllum) Unbelievable, swirly, unpredictable grain patterns with light to dark variations of cream brown to dark brown color. Natural edges, bark inclusions and internal voids may be present and are not considered defects. From northwestern US.

Maple, curly (Acer macrophyllum) Unbelievable grain patterns that are curly or fiddlebacked. Color ranges from light cream to golden brown to reddish brown. From northwestern US and West Coast Canada (the image may appear to be a purple color but its just the lighting, true color like the Burl Maple above.)

Rosewood, East Indian. Sawn about 100 years ago, this beautiful old wood has some very good figure and it is extremely dense and heavy. I have some match-sawn blanks.

Snakewood (Piratinera Guianensis) Snakewood can be challenging to work, but it turns exceptionally well. When polished this wood is one of the most beautiful species of all hardwoods. It's grain is typically rather straight. It's heartwood is deep red in color but changes its stripes after exposure to air, which makes the wood eventually turn a reddish brown so we finish and seal all snakewood grips in amber varnish. This is an extremely dense hardwood and can be a challenge to work with. It splits fairly easily and can be splintery. The bright side is that snake wood turns well and polishes beautifully.

The name "snake wood" surely came from the snakeskin-like markings that appear in the grain of this exotic wood. Snake wood comes from a small, relatively rare tree found in the forests of Central and South America. Snake wood is commonly used to make pens, knife handles, pool-cue butts, turnings and unusual inlay work. I have made handgun grips from this wood and they are quite beautiful but because of its fragile nature there is often a lot of loss from a large block of it before the perfect piece is found. Because of this and its scarcity, snakewood is one of the more expensive hardwoods.

American black walnut (left and below) from old, unused but broken military stock blanks (not from used gun stocks or furniture), probably sawn about 100 years ago. This is nothing too fancy although some of this will have a little figure, the important thing is its good, solid American walnut heartwood that will be suitable for building factory duplication grips for many 19th century handguns. The grip at the top of this page was made from a piece of this wood.

Fancy American black walnut, sliced from a stock blank sawn over 125 years ago. This is beautiful heartwood with loads of color and figure, even some fiddleback. I have very little of this left, the photo to the left is a nearly finished S&W Schofield grip made from this same blank.