You can do this - Glock Grip

[graycrait]

Odd, Tuesday I got a call from a Special Forces soldier from FT Bragg telling me his buddy was coming to FT Campbell for a wedding and wondered if I would alter his Glock grip like one he had seen another fella had here in Clarksville. Once upon a time I had the privelege and fun living and working with SF soldiers. Anyway, he just wanted me to reduce finger humps and stipple in smooth areas without going crazy like I do on my Glocks. You be the judge:

[Steelharp]

Let me preface: I hate stippling, period. That being said, that's possibly the best job of it I've ever seen, IMO. Great job.

[Erik88]

I will echo Stellharp, that is one of the cleanest stipple jobs I've seen. Period.

How long does the process take? Was the guy happy with it?

[Fourtyfive]

Do you do that with a wood burning tool ?

[Guest Bronker]

Reducing the finger grooves on the forward aspect of the grip, interests me tremendously...they are my one singular gripe against Glocks.

Unless you have Leprechaun hands, they rarely fit. I've been limited to a Gen 2 as EDC for this very reason (as for compacts like the G19).

Hmmm...

[graycrait]

I sent pics to the owner in Ft Bragg and he said he was happy. That particular process takes about an hour with no breaks, maybe 75 minutes because you want to look over the whole job after you are finished with a good light at all angles to make sure you don't have gaps in the stippling. The key is grinding off the finger humps without damaging the stock Glock stipple. I need to find a 6 or 8" 3/8" grinding wheel. I have a 1/2 and it works well enough but narrower would be better. Every month of two some GI or LEO asks me to do this to their personal Glock. I don't like to use a dremel to take the humps off because they can slip and even with a longer shaft barrel sander the Dremel and chuck can get in the way. $10.00 wood burning pen from Walmart and some time is all it takes otherwise. Best to use an outward circular pattern, moving the "circle" laterally so you overlap. Don't try and make this lines because it will look like doo doo. Once done any place that offends the senses feel-wise you can hit with some fine grain sandpaper. You can vary the harshness also with different heads or longer "press" time with the tip on the plastic. I have developed a sort of generic feel that lets me move fairly quickly. Unless you poke a hole clear through you can pretty much redo anything that doesn't look as good as you want it. And if over time the grip gets a little smooth in places you can hit it again. This is a plastic framed Glock, a shooter's gun, not some 5-screw S&W deep blued Target Masterpiece.

Some plastics don't work as well as others. I did a friend's Sig grip panels one time and they turned out well. Another friend did the whole stock, except for cheek weld, of a synthetic Remington 700 stock after I showed him how.

[Fourtyfive]

Nice work.

[Guest Bronker]

Craig, how easy to just remove the finger 'humps' without doing the grip stippling?

[graycrait]

The problem with removing the humps without stippling is that you are dealing with an abrasive to remove plastic, there will be striations and those areas will be unsightly. I have tried all sorts of things to make the plastic smooth once I have taken material off with a grinder or sanding barrel. None of them worked very well

Striations wouldn't bother me but then... I suppose you could "shave" the humps off but I have never tried, although I have a leather working tool that might work for that. You could stipple just the area where you remove the humps.

The best method would likely be take a grinding wheel and grind off the humps. Then take a dremel and sanding barrel and dress up the hump areas as much as possible. Next use use one of those 3M scratch pad-like dremel wheels to smooth up the area. Very light pressure with that pad or it will melt and smear the plastic - why would I know that? You can then take some 4-600 grit sandpaper on your finger or wrapped around a popsicle stick and smooth the area. Heck, you could do the whole job with a popsicle stick and varying grits of sandpaper. Grinder is faster. Drill press vice is also a pretty enexpensive tool useful in this process. I pad the jaws when I work on other people's Glocks. I still think an 8" 3/8" wide grinding wheel would be ideal for efficeintly grinding off the humps in a manner where you can steady the grind without worrying overly much about damaging any other surface area of the plastic frame. I don't have a wheel that size so can't confirm that.

It is sort of a pain to grind off enough material to take the humps and stock Glock stippling off the front strap and really doesn't give you anything - I know. However taking off some of the backstrap stippling and cutting up in the tang a bit can give the shooter with shorter, damaged or weak fingers a bit better hold. Taking off the backstrap stippling is best done with a Dremel with the fatter sanding barrel.

[Guest TheRev.]

i think it looks great, FWIW i dont know why Glock hasn't done some grip adjustments like backstrap sizes or whatever.

[Erik88]

i think it looks great, FWIW i dont know why Glock hasn't done some grip adjustments like backstrap sizes or whatever.

they have. Gen 4 glocks!

[Guest TnValleyBulletman]

i think it looks great, FWIW i dont know why Glock hasn't done some grip adjustments like backstrap sizes or whatever.

That is what they did with the Gen4 guns.

Graycrait, I like what you did, especially removing the finger grooves. That's about the only thing I do to mine.

[Zeus]

Let me preface: I hate stippling, period. That being said, that's possibly the best job of it I've ever seen, IMO. Great job.

This

[Links2k]

Outstanding job. Looks very good.

[R1100R]

Looks great!!

Edited March 20, 2011 by R1100R

[Steelharp]

Reducing the finger grooves on the forward aspect of the grip, interests me tremendously...they are my one singular gripe against Glocks.

Unless you have Leprechaun hands, they rarely fit. I've been limited to a Gen 2 as EDC for this very reason (as for compacts like the G19).

Hmmm...

They fit my hands perfectly; but mine aren't meat hooks.

[Guest Synghyn]

Looks great, very nice job! I can't say I've ever seen a stippling job that I thought looked as good as that. And more to the point it just looks at home on the gun. Obviously different, but if you didn't know what it looked like before that could pass for a factory gun. Very nice job.

Jon

[texfrazer]

Without looking at a factory set-up, I would swear that came from the factory. Excellent job!

You could make some spare cash by offering up your services via the intraweb. There's so many glock users out there that you'd probably be swamped!

[Jasongar8]

Nice work. One of the best stippling I've seen.

[BluewaterTactical]

Nice work!