There are a number of websites, gun shops, and retail vendors who sell handgun grips. These grips range in price and quality from fairly inexpensive, mass-produced handgun grips to extremely high-end, high-value products. How do you determine whether a handgun grip fits into the first category, the second category, or somewhere in between the two ends of the spectrum?

This web page will show you some of the finer points of handgun grip construction and clue you in to a few specific items which you will want to compare when selecting a pair of handgun grips for your favorite handgun.


A Quality Product Starts With The Right Materials

At X-Calibergrips, we start by selecting ONLY the highest quality woods, composites, and carbon fiber materials commercially available. If you do not start with a high-quality material, how can you possibly hope to handcraft a quality finished product? What is the difference?

• Our carbon fiber grips start as a solid sheet of 3/8 inch plain weave carbon fiber fabric. This premium fabric is manufactured especially for X-CaliberGrips and is not available "off the shelf" in the United States! Many competitor's carbon fiber grips are actually a carbon fiber mat bonded to a filler material. Which would you rather put on your favorite firearm?
  
  
• Our hardwood materials are hand-selected by our master craftsmen. We reject those hardwoods which we do not feel have a sufficient level of grain, burl, figurative, and coloration from which to craft a truly outstanding pair of grips. Many competitors buy their hardwoods "sight-unseen" from a wholesaler!
  
  
• Our liner materials are the finest available on the market today. Would you settle for less for your firearm? We don't for less on our own firearms!

A Quality Product Requires Attention To Detail Up Front!

By the time you finish a pair of grips, it is far too late to fix those mistakes which occur when the grips are initially laid out on a piece of hardwood, or on a carbon fiber mat. To get it "right", the initial layout of each piece is absolutely critical!

That is why each block of hardwood we use is analyzed before we begin, insuring we cut each block so as to make the most of the figurative, grain, burls, and coloration available in the wood. We do not simply cut our blanks out of a piece of wood, we cut our blanks so as to make the most of each block of wood! You will generally find that the less a pair of grips cost, the more likely it is that the piece of hardwood has simply been "blocked" to obtain the highest number of blanks from a particular piece of wood.

We also take the time and effort to cut BOTH sides of a pair of grips from a SINGLE piece of hardwood. Nothing is worse than getting a pair of grips which is badly mismatched, with the grain, figurative, and coloration varying greatly between the right-hand and left-hand grip. Again, some of your less-expensive products simply can't guarantee you this level of quality.

If carbon fiber grips are not designed and blocked properly, they will never be an attractive addition to your firearm. We take the time to properly line up the carbon fiber mesh so that the grain of the finished product properly aligned to your handgun. We also take the time to insure that the grain between the two halves of each grip match. Many manufacturers choose to produce a less expensive product by simply bonding a carbon fiber mat to a filler material, which produces a far inferior product. Which would you really prefer to put on YOUR handgun?


A Quality Product Is Designed For Your Gun

We primarily show 45 caliber handguns on our website. Don't let that fool you! We can design a set of handgun grips for almost any production handgun which you might own.

When you design a set of grips, there are a number of design considerations the craftsman must consider, these include:

Figure 1		Figure 2



• Taking the time to properly align the grip to the frame of the gun so that the grip is properly centered on your gun (Figures 1 & 2).
  
  

  Figure 3		Figure 4

  
  
• Taking the time to cut the grip even with the magazine well (Figure 3).
  
  
• Paying attention to the location of the magazine release and making sure that the finished grips will not interfere with the action of the magazine release (Figure 4).
  
  

  Figure 5		Figure 6		Figure 7

  
  
• Properly carrying the top of the grip over the plunger tube and cutting out the grip to properly form to the plunger tube. (Figures 5, 6, & 7). Many companies simply choose to "top off" their grips short of the plunger tube as it requires less effort, reduces manufacturing time, reduces the complexity of the grip, and costs less to produce. However, why would you buy "half a pair of grips"?
  
  
• Designing the handgun grip to mate properly with your traditional or extended slide release and to not interfere with the action of the slide.
  
  

  Figure 8		Figure 9

  
  
• Designing the proper cutouts to match the safety release(s) on your gun, whether that be a traditional or extended safety, and whether or not your handgun has an ambidextrous safety (Figure 8).
  
  
• Taking the time to cut the back strap pin cutout to properly contour with the gun. Many manufacturers simply cut the corner off of the grips to accomodate the back strap pin, as opposed to taking the time to cut their grips to mate properly with the back strap pin (Figure 9).

A Quality Product Requires Careful Finishing

Even a well-designed set of handgun grips can look like a very poor product if they are not finished with care. We take great pride in finishing our grips to the highest standards of workmanship.

This includes the following steps:

• Our products are carefully sanded and rounded until the surface of the wood, composite material, or carbon fiber is "smooth as glass" using our proprietary finishing techniques and processes. We take the time to hand finish each item as it allows us more control over the final product than would be possible using a mechanical finishing process.
  
  
• Most of our hardwood handgun grips are polished and oiled (not varnished!). This provides you with a finish similar to that you would find on a finely crafted piece of furniture. Oiling provides you with a quality wood finish that will retain its beauty for years to come, unlike varnish which may peel after only a few years.
  
  
• Before a pair of our handgun grips is released for shipment, it is inspected for quality and checked for proper fit and finish by mounting the grips on one of our quality handguns. Should an adjustment be required, it is carried out by a skilled craftsman before it leaves our shop!

Our Grips Are A Beautiful Addition To Any Handgun

Our handgun grips are designed to be among the finest available in the world today. We take the time to select just the right cuts of wood so that you get a truly unique set of grips. We take the time to properly cut each block of wood and each carbon fiber mat so that it will give you the finest presentation available on your handgun. We take the time to hand finish each item to extremely close tolerances.

We build quality, value, and beauty into each set of X-Caliber Grips. When selecting a pair of grips for your handgun, would you really want to settle for anything less?