our grips are hand-made right here in Pennsylvania
how GemGrips are created
Every set of natural stone GemGrips begins with a rough rock. The rock has to be cut, drilled, shaped and polished using a variety of lapidary tools and techniques. Each grip in a set must be carefully matched to the other in terms of color and pattern. It takes 50 to 60 hours and dozens of separate operations to get from rough rock to a finished set of grips.
GemGrips made from stabilized stone are made using the same tools and techniques but the material is much easier to work, taking only about 30 hours per set to complete. This savings in time is passed on to you as a significantly lower price. Stabilized stone also opens up many fun and colorful choices that are not available or usable as a natural stone due to size, strength and/or cost.
What's the point of putting custom grips on your gun if you can't shoot it?
ALL
GemGrips
are
FULLY-FUNCTIONAL
GemGrips aren't just for show.
Every set of GemGrips incorporates several features that give them the strength and durability to withstand the recoil of modern centerfire handgun ammo. It took me several years and many broken prototype grips to refine my idea into a functional design. Each new material I try must withstand a minimum of 25 rounds in a durability test. In addition, every set of GemGrips undergoes a 15-round minimum final test before it
passes final Q.C.
Not every material passes the initial durability test. Usually a weaker or otherwise unsuitable material cracks or breaks within the first couple rounds. The first prototype set of grips that passed the durability test, made of natural North American nephrite jade, has absorbed the recoil of over 250 full-power .45acp rounds so far, installed on
several different guns,
with NO DAMAGE whatsoever!
Durable should not be confused with indestructible, however.
Dropping GemGrips or a handgun with GemGrips installed onto hard surfaces from ANY distance is VERY STRONGLY discouraged.
All stone can and will chip,
crack or break.
natural vs. stabilized stone
What's the difference?
The depth and beauty of the colors and patterns in natural stone is breathtaking. Every piece is a beautiful work of art by Mother Nature herself. Unfortunately, natural stone has some drawbacks. It can be VERY hard and tough. This means A LOT more time spent cutting, drilling, shaping and finishing the stone. It's also much harder on the equipment. Diamonds must be used to cut and shape most natural stone, and belts, bits and wheels wear out quickly. Both of these factors add to the final cost of the grips. Pieces of rough natural stone large and solid enough to cut grips from can also be expensive and/or difficult to obtain. Finally, some types of natural stone are just too soft, too fragile, or too small to use for handgun grips.
Stabilized stone offers several advantages over its natural counterpart. Stabilized stone contains up to 15% resin, which strengthens and stabilizes the material, making it tougher and more durable than natural stone of the same type. It's also much faster and easier to cut and shape, about half the time of natural stone. The time saved is passed on to you as a significantly lower price. The trade-off is that stabilized stone just doesn't have the depth, translucence or complex patterns that natural stone does. In this department, Mother Nature will ALWAYS be the master...
where a rough rock becomes a
wearable work of art.
my "rock room"
This is where I do lapidary work and jewelry-making, and house my collection of rocks and minerals. It's probably my favorite place to be. The large window visible in both pictures looks out into our backyard. We hang bird feeders in the large cherry tree that sits near this corner of the house, so I get to watch the birds come and go all day long.
I've been into rocks and guns since I was a little kid...
When I was 7 or 8 years old, I found my first fossil in my grandmas driveway in West Virginia. I still have it: two small seashells in bluish-gray limestone. That find started my life-long interest in rocks. Grandma was a science teacher and had a fairly large collection of rocks and minerals, most of them probably found and collected by her during her many years in the western and south-western U.S. I inherited her collection and her 18-inch rock saw and apparently, her love of rocks and nature.
Her son (my dad) joined the Navy, then the Marines, and served 3 tours in Vietnam as an artillery captain. He also shot rifle and pistol for the Marine Corps shooting team. He had several trophies. I inherited my love of guns and shooting from him. I started learning to shoot a pistol not too long after I found that first fossil, with his gov't-issued WW2-vintage 1911A1 that was made by Colt in 1943. I shot quite a few rounds out of that old war-horse when I was a kid. I still have it, too. It still gets the job done.
That old Colt has earned a well-deserved rest. I bought a bit newer Colt to target shoot with,
a beautiful, blued Gold Cup. But it had drab rubber wrap-around grips. It REALLY needed some better grips to set off that rich Colt bluing...
A nice set of custom wood grips helped but still just didn't do MY gun justice. I wanted something that would stand out, something
REALLY different.
The idea of GemGrips was born.
I learned the lapidary arts with the express purpose of creating a TRULY one-of-a-kind set of custom grips to put on my gun. It's taken hundreds of hours of work and quite a few broken prototypes to get to this point. Every new material presents new challenges but also more unique and colorful choices.
I hope you like GemGrips as
much as I do.
I put my heart and soul and three generations worth of knowledge and experience
into every set I make. Neither my father or grandmother are
still with us, but I'd like to think
they would approve.
They helped make me
who I am today and
GemGrips
probably wouldn't be here
without them...
I would also like to thank the following people for all their love and support:
first and foremost-my bestest friend and wife Erin, my brother Josh, Dr. Brent Guise, Scott Taylor, my stepdad Daniel, and last but not least my mom Trish.
Thanks especially Mom, for always encouraging my creativity and the belief that I can do anything I put my mind to.
the
GemGrips
team
Do you work with an awesome team?
We do!
'Cuz our team is US!
Me and The Boss
Hi! I'm Jason and she's Erin, a.k.a. The Big B.
I make the grips. She runs the joint
and keeps me in line.
It's a tough job.
I'm VERY high-maintenance...
Fluffhead
Fluffhead is no longer with us but will always be in our hearts. She took her job in the mailroom VERY seriously... She also headed up the security department after our doberman, Cassie passed away and could always be counted on to run off ruffians and n'er-do-wells.