reelinron wrote:
Nice guns and nice walnut loading stand.
Wish I had some highly figured walnut crotch just "Laying around the shop!" lol
I had a small piece and made a mallet out of it for my Nephew. Interesting stuff that walnut!
I got lucky with this chunk. There's still a little of it left in the piece I cut this from. I've pretty much decided I'll be making some pistol/revolver grips out of this slab. Should get enough for 5 or 6 sets I can sell for $80/set or so.
For y'all looking to make some beer money, you should look into making grips, rifle stocks, and knife scales. There's a lot of competition for custom grips/scales, but most of the custom stuff I've seen is plastic or laminated wood with pictures and stuff laser engraved/painted, which is not my cup of gunpowder.
Not very many are solid wood with good figure these days. If you google "custom pistol grips" you'll see what I mean.
Also many, if not most, handguns made in the last 10 or 15 years have frames that incorporate one size fits all grips that cannot be removed, so that segment is unavailable. You're basically limited to older revolvers/semi-auto's (what are commonly called "BBQ guns"), and competition guns. Figure $75-$300+ for a good set.
Well made rifle & shotgun stocks made of highly figured woods can easily fetch $1000 or more. But it is a niche market and there are some well established makers, so it might be a tough market to break into.