Got a "Grip" ? 1911 Pistol grips

I have a Retired Navy friend near San Diego looking for wood grips for his Pistol.

Not something I have the time or expertise to get into with my CW so I though I would ask here if someone was already doing them.

Send me a PM and I will put you in touch with my Sony Buddy.

Thanks,

AL




"Speaking of work, why don't you start engraving pistol grips and such. There are so many people that would eat that up cause they all think they're RAMBO Jr. Small and easy to do. I know I'd love to have a set for my 1911 with my E-9 anchor on one side and MMCM on the other! That would be purely awesome. Made out of walnut. Just a thought."

That's what I do for a living. I bought the carvewright to bring production in-house and so I could offer more unique options. Unfortunately my machine is down, so I'm back to farming out the milling, but my partner is fantastic. Here are a couple sets of inlays I've done recently (hand carved - I do my finish and my inlay work by hand only) I have a few pairs of feathered Claro Walnut already cut and in the shop ready for finish, as well as a couple pair of standard straight grain American walnut.

Very nice on the grips.

yes, beautiful work.

dave

I hooked them up via eMail... Excellent work !!!

AL

Just wanted to let you know I never did hear from your friend.

Here's a set if you want to give it a go, AW

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Originally Posted by cnsranch

Here's a set if you want to give it a go, AW

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WOW.... and I could even open it..... Might give it a try.... Let him do the finish work...

THANK YOU !!!!

AL

Well that's disappointing, especially since I have what he wanted already in the shop, just have to do the engraving :\

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Originally Posted by 2A Finishing

Well that's disappointing, especially since I have what he wanted already in the shop, just have to do the engraving :\

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Sorry about that...

AL

No worries. To tell you the truth it's looking like the economy is getting the best of me as far as the business goes anyway. When it gets to the point where one lost sale bothers me, I think it's probably time to cash in my chips and figure out something else. I am curious what my mistake was though.

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Originally Posted by 2A Finishing

No worries. To tell you the truth it's looking like the economy is getting the best of me as far as the business goes anyway. When it gets to the point where one lost sale bothers me, I think it's probably time to cash in my chips and figure out something else. I am curious what my mistake was though.

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While I have made "extra money" with my woodworking it mostly has paid for my hobby and tools. It is very rare to find someone making a full time living with their machine. Their are a few but for most the machine contributes to a business that is not entirely made up of woodworking or one product. If you believe in making it work though then be the exception and keep going. It can happen.

I read something on here, I want to say almost 2 years ago, that gave ideas for marketing what you make. It was pretty interesting, but I cannot find it searching for "estate" - one of the ideas was working with real estate agents to make address signs for new home owners as house warming/thank you gifts. If anyone knows what document I am referring to, it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to read it again, now that I am more proficient with the darn thing :)

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Originally Posted by DianMayfield

I read something on here, I want to say almost 2 years ago, that gave ideas for marketing what you make. It was pretty interesting, but I cannot find it searching for "estate" - one of the ideas was working with real estate agents to make address signs for new home owners as house warming/thank you gifts. If anyone knows what document I am referring to, it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to read it again, now that I am more proficient with the darn thing :)

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Was this the presentation that Tom Watson gave at the CarveWright Conference a few years ago?

It was about the time that the Metal Stamping and Mold Making blog entries, the band stand large carve were some of the first things on the page. Not really sure now of the source. Are the conference recaps archived?

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Originally Posted by DianMayfield

It was about the time that the Metal Stamping and Mold Making blog entries, the band stand large carve were some of the first things on the page. Not really sure now of the source. Are the conference recaps archived?

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Looks like Joe took them off when he redid the website.

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Originally Posted by DianMayfield

I read something on here, I want to say almost 2 years ago, that gave ideas for marketing what you make. It was pretty interesting, but I cannot find it searching for "estate" - one of the ideas was working with real estate agents to make address signs for new home owners as house warming/thank you gifts. If anyone knows what document I am referring to, it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to read it again, now that I am more proficient with the darn thing :)

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Found it: http://forum.carvewright.com/showthr...hlight=realtor

I did signs for a Realtor for a few years, over $1K per year, with his logo on the sign. It was for a gated community that required the signs. It was a source of advertising for them as it showed they were the top Realtor in the area and the sign lasted for years. I raised my prices as my Fire Tag Business was taking off and I was a one man shop. He found someone else to do it cheaper. I then started pushing my other sign requests to the new guy as he did nice work and I was too busy... It was a win win...

As for a Business... I started in 2007 and by 2009 I was almost Bankrupt.... My Navy Retirement went to pay the Building and Equipment Loan. So I needed to make operating expenses.. I ended up clearing my debt by rolling it into my Building Loan and just about have it paid off. The Craft Thing was Heavy on Labor and Light on Profit.... My savings grace was my local FD asking me if I could make Fire Tags with my printer after I made some printed signs for the Township Building. The 2nd lightning strike was when a Fire Tag customer asked why a Wood Shop was making Fire Tags?... I did a quick search and saw that www.AccountabilityTag.com was available and quickly bought the name. For $119.00 a year I have a Yahoo Business Site Host and just added lots of pictures. When most Fire Departments look for Tags they just do a search and I pop up on the first 5 pages a few times. I just got a 3rd big Tag order this morning making Three orders I am working on at the moment totaling over $8K... One is a Oil Refinery in New Mexico and they want to do another Refinery when I get done with this $4K one. They have Corporate Fire School in October and want to have the tags to show off.... So it is going to get crazy with other orders... And I could not do it without the CW cutting the tag blanks and the handles for the Accountability Boards.

I looked on eBay and saw over 22 pages of 1911 grips but NONE offering custom grips... For a few bucks a month to run a auction of WHAT you can do might be worth it... OR even come up with a Web Site.... Like my Navy Buddy said... Custom GRIPS will sell if you get the word out.... The trick is being found....

So the Craft Show thing died when the Economy Died... Finding Fire Tags and putting the CW to work has saved my business...

I plan to make the grips for my friend as a gift... He pulled my hide out of the Fire many times at Sony when we were both fixing the equipment making 17 inch Computer Monitor Picture Tubes on a 12 hour shift.

So the pictures... In the first picture the Quilt Racks... I STILL have about 3/4 of them in my storage room.... Didn't sell.. Wood Signs... First load catching up in back ordered signs for the Development Office... 2011 Fire Tags in picture 6 and Sheet Stock in picture 7 and Handles in picture 8.

AL

I *only* do custom grips to order (and other small projects like plaques and "gun related" decor) - I keep blanks in stock to reduce turnaround times on them since I hand carve the inlays and the finish is hand rubbed oil.

I don't currently use the carvewright to cut my grips - I farm out the milling to someone with a much more expensive machine because it costs me less and I get a more precise, higher quality product than what I have the skill to produce on the carvewright, in much less time than I will EVER manage with the carvewright (My best prototype set took around 45 minutes to carve out, whereas my partner is running them off on her machine in under 15 minutes per set). I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make money with the carvewright, and I have been getting there slowly. I currently use facebook for my marketing - I had a website but took it down due to hosting changes and haven't rebuilt it yet. I know my weak point as far as generating business has been my marketing and advertising. Between it being just me doing it, and it taking so much time to do the actual work, I'm just spread too thin. That and I made some mistakes in starting my business when and how I did, so that came back to bite me. That said, I wasn't really asking why my business is in the toilet lol - I was just asking why your navy buddy decided not to engage my services is all (and I can't fathom that it would be that my quality is less than he was looking for, but if it is, I'd love to know what the complaint is so I can fix it for the next customer)

As far as ebay, I've thought about running an ad for my custom work, but I have no idea how to make an ad for something I don't have in hand yet to sell that doesn't have a fixed price.

Here is a link to some ETSY stores, this may help you get some ideas on marketing
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=1911%20grips

Some ideas for marketing and showing your work would be at gun shops, gun clubs, shooting ranges and even pawn shops.

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Originally Posted by 2A Finishing

I *only* do custom grips to order (and other small projects like plaques and "gun related" decor) - I keep blanks in stock to reduce turnaround times on them since I hand carve the inlays and the finish is hand rubbed oil.

I don't currently use the carvewright to cut my grips - I farm out the milling to someone with a much more expensive machine because it costs me less and I get a more precise, higher quality product than what I have the skill to produce on the carvewright, in much less time than I will EVER manage with the carvewright (My best prototype set took around 45 minutes to carve out, whereas my partner is running them off on her machine in under 15 minutes per set). I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make money with the carvewright, and I have been getting there slowly. I currently use facebook for my marketing - I had a website but took it down due to hosting changes and haven't rebuilt it yet. I know my weak point as far as generating business has been my marketing and advertising. Between it being just me doing it, and it taking so much time to do the actual work, I'm just spread too thin. That and I made some mistakes in starting my business when and how I did, so that came back to bite me. That said, I wasn't really asking why my business is in the toilet lol - I was just asking why your navy buddy decided not to engage my services is all (and I can't fathom that it would be that my quality is less than he was looking for, but if it is, I'd love to know what the complaint is so I can fix it for the next customer)

As far as ebay, I've thought about running an ad for my custom work, but I have no idea how to make an ad for something I don't have in hand yet to sell that doesn't have a fixed price.

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I believe it came down to my buddy was trying to get me involved making them and was not interested in just getting them from anyone else. More to help me expand my business. It was not about the money. And as a result of a Fantastic Forum Member posting a really nice pattern I will give it a shot...

So no complaint just he had a motive to get me doing them... It worked...

AL

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Originally Posted by Digitalwoodshop

I believe it came down to my buddy was trying to get me involved making them and was not interested in just getting them from anyone else. More to help me expand my business. It was not about the money. And as a result of a Fantastic Forum Member posting a really nice pattern I will give it a shot...

So no complaint just he had a motive to get me doing them... It worked...

AL

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Good luck with it brother, I'm sure you'll do a great job.
A tip - if you plan on actually going into the business of selling them find a unique feature/checkering style, or profile shape to cater to the "nobody else has this" crowd - that's where the money is at.

My buddy is also a woodworker to some extent and I plan to send them to him still on the board...

Good Idea... Unique...

Thanks,

AL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 2A Finishing

I *only* do custom grips to order (and other small projects like plaques and "gun related" decor) - I keep blanks in stock to reduce turnaround times on them since I hand carve the inlays and the finish is hand rubbed oil.

I don't currently use the carvewright to cut my grips - I farm out the milling to someone with a much more expensive machine because it costs me less and I get a more precise, higher quality product than what I have the skill to produce on the carvewright, in much less time than I will EVER manage with the carvewright (My best prototype set took around 45 minutes to carve out, whereas my partner is running them off on her machine in under 15 minutes per set). I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make money with the carvewright, and I have been getting there slowly. I currently use facebook for my marketing - I had a website but took it down due to hosting changes and haven't rebuilt it yet. I know my weak point as far as generating business has been my marketing and advertising. Between it being just me doing it, and it taking so much time to do the actual work, I'm just spread too thin. That and I made some mistakes in starting my business when and how I did, so that came back to bite me. That said, I wasn't really asking why my business is in the toilet lol - I was just asking why your navy buddy decided not to engage my services is all (and I can't fathom that it would be that my quality is less than he was looking for, but if it is, I'd love to know what the complaint is so I can fix it for the next customer)

As far as ebay, I've thought about running an ad for my custom work, but I have no idea how to make an ad for something I don't have in hand yet to sell that doesn't have a fixed price.

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do you have any other grip patterns to sell? you should put them into the pattern depot to share, and make money.

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Originally Posted by jab73180

do you have any other grip patterns to sell? you should put them into the pattern depot to share, and make money.

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I'd prefer making money off selling the product vs selling the pattern and adding to my competition ;) I may have other patterns to sell in the future though.