Plastic grip checkering

[Bugscuffle]

Can plastic grips be checkered with regular checkering tools or do they need special treatment or special tools?

[hawkeye2]

     You pose an interesting question.  Plastic is a very uniform material and is easly cut with a sharp knife.  It can also be polished out to a nice finish after working.  I would venture to guess that they could be checkered easily but I personally wouldn't try a very fine checkering for fear that some of the diamonds night break off while cutting.  This, of course, would be dependent on how brittle the plastic was.  What is the backside of the grips like?  If they are thick enough and flat enough you might try it there.  I would be interested in hearing your results.

[St. George]

You can refresh the checkering on plastic grips - I've done it to GI M1911A1 grips before, and even to military/civilian hard rubber, as found on Colt SAA's and Webleys.

However - in the repolishing process to remove the myriad of little plastic spurs, unless you're very careful and very patient, you'll lose sharpness.

My polishing compound was/is toothpaste and baking soda.

Hand-checkering smooth plastic is another thing entirely, and to my mind, not worth the effort required.

Good Luck!

Vaya,

Scouts Out!