Eli Polite and his Grips

Yep, he did a couple of sets for me last year. I now refer him to people I like. It's going to bite me in the ass though because he'll end up being so busy I'll have to wait in line.
 
They look great on your 1911..

Its not the grips that keep me busy rite now I have a few grips I have been wanting to get done for a while now just to show off and I cant find the time for it.. My day job is keeping me busy. Add in the grips and there is no time for my pet projects.. below is a photo of a granite bar in a local restaurant that I built it took me a 10 days to complete it and 1 day to get it put in.. it took 4 full slabs of granite to make this thing also is a set of grips that I just finished for a regular customer they are ambrosia maple









 
Last edited:
your welcome I meant to ask if it was good!

Granite grips YES! but there are issues with it when it is cut down to that size it becomes extremely fragile. There are ways to counter that I have hallowed out the back and epoxied a 1/16" thick stainless steel mesh on the back side of it. that will give it extra strength and it has to be stainless regular steel can rust and cause the granite to crack. I have a set of green onyx grips laying around here some where but there just to fragile and onyx is transparent so any strengthening on the back side would show. there also time consuming and heavy. I would not feel good charging some one $200 for a set of granite grips that are extremely fragile.

one more pic of the maple grips they only had 2 coats of finish on them in this pic

 
Last edited:
The question was raised as to whether or not these grips were hard to hold with wet or grimy hands. A sweaty hand grabs and holds fine, as does a wet hand. The work on the front strap and the work on the back, along with the 80's finger separators on my gun make it easy to hold regardless of how the hand is. The grips, although smooth and shiny also offer a certain amount of grippiness too.

Yes, my 45 is a frankenstein gun. It is made of a Safari Arms frame, a Springfield slide, and a multitude of gun show internal parts. It was taken to a small shop in Nor-Cal for a very old friend to affix some combat sights on. Doug MacDougall, did the work, and at first, Mac Scott, the shop owner laughed at my collection of parts. Doug told him to go test shoot it and align the sights after he was done. When Mac came back into the shop, he was smiling, and holding a target that had one ragged hole. MY ugly ass gun has been blessed by a demigod who said it was,"A fine shootin pistol, really nice shootin, this collection of do dads works!"
I know there are not too many left who can say their built, not bought, pistol was worked on by a master who apprenticed under a demigod of 45's.
Both of you are well remembered and missed, RIP Doug, and Mac!
 
I do a lot of show grips I also do stippling on quite a few.. the thing is most 1911 owner's have more than 1, 1911 quite a few people have me make grips for there SHOW/ BBQ guns and the fact that it only takes about 2 min to switch out a set of grips makes it easy to switch out the grips for different purposes.. I know quite a few people that have way more grips than they have 1911's they switch them to what there mood and needs are.

I'm working on a set rite now that I will show in about a month.. In a way I hate showing pic's of them because there are so many copy cats out there. I fallow the current art world as well and I can tell you steeling others work and copies of originals is a huge problem. I have done so many grips that I would LOVE! to show but they were done strictly as 1 of a kinds and showing them leaves it open to be copied..
 
I have only one problem with the silver St James Cross inlayed into 20 yr old ebony that
Eli made for me. People keep drooling on them when they are holding them

Thanks again Eli.
 
Is your skill limited to handgun grips, or can you fancy me something nice for this?

nbt7nl.jpg
 
I sent Eli Polite some bog oak that was 3 thousand to 5 thousand years old. This wood came to me from the fellow who dug it out of the peat bog. I was REALLY nervous about sending wood that valuable to anyone to have grips made. I got back two GORGEOUS sets of grips, and I couldn't be happier with them.