DIY stippling a polymer frame handgun

[Tgace]

While the Glock Company likes to use the word "Perfection" when it refers to its product, the one criticism many make about their pistols is the fact that the grips can get a bit slick/slippery with sweaty (or God forbid bloody) hands.

A small cottage industry has sprung up selling tapes & coatings to address this issue. Another option is a DIY Stippling Job you can do yourself if you have the nerve. All you need is a soldering iron (got mine from Radio Shack for $8) and a marker.

Use the marker to draw out the areas you want to add texture to and then start stippling with the iron. There are different textures you can create with different soldering iron tips. I used a simple point tip to make a "cats tongue" type texture.

All you need is some patience and a steady hand.

Granted, it's not the perfect "look" you would get with a commercial job, but it works and it's cheap. Besides, there's something "mean and functional" to the DIY look anyways.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[Tgace]

hmmm..title should say "polymer" handgun. Darn auto-correct.

 

[Grenadier]

Fixed!

On another note, I've never been a fan of stippling the grip on a Glock. I've never had any grip issues with any of my Glocks, since the texture seems to give me a good enough grip on them, even when damp.

I'm sure it can help some folks, but if they really do need that extra bit of texture, there are always alternatives that don't irreversibly alter the frame. For people who don't want to use an external slip-on grip, there are the Decal Grips:

http://www.decalgrip.com/

The sandpaper ones don't add any bulk at all to the grip.

On yet another note, I've seen some truly awful stippling jobs... There was one individual dealer at the Birmingham area gun shows that keeps trying to sell his Glock 30 that he did a most horrible job of DIY stippling. It looks like a dog chewed up the grip...

The worst part of it? He still insists on 699.00 for it...

 

[Tgace]

I like the added texture on the smaller G27. On my G22 what I really need (and will be putting on shortly) is a beaver tail extension. I tend to grip so high on the backstrap that I get slide bite on the web of my firing hand. Not really a problem for a magazine or 3 but after an extended range day I get to bleeding.