Is that on my actual daily carry pieces Stippling just gets filled up with dust/dirt/oil/goo and becomes less effective or just ugly and hard to clean.
I have switched to 3M “skateboard” tape on my primary and with careful application it’s low-profile, effective, and doesn’t seem to attract yuck…
That said I still love the look of Stippling. Anyone have any solutions??
Thanks!
Dennis.
I usually wash it with dish washing liquid and use an old toothbrush once a month. Hope this helps
i knock my stippling down with sandpaper… it evens it out and gets rid of the material that grabs lint, dirt etc…
I stopped using a pointed tip when stippling because the holes would clog with dirt and skin and lose their grippy quality. I’ve changed to a rougher scab texture that works much better.
My problem with stippling is no one wants to by the gun afterwards.
Stippled handguns are nasty
.
Gets full of dead skin, lint, dirt, oil, etc. I won’t even touch one…
Any crack and crevice on a gun can and will pick up dirt, skin, lint, ect. Pulled a set of decal grips off my 17 a couple months back and had one area of the checker no the backstrap that was clogged with lint and shit. Hell, on a Beretta 92 the slide serrations were so clogged that when I was cleaning them out they were filled with gunk. I can imagine stippling is worse, but unless you have a perfectly smooth gun I think you are going to pick gunk up somehow, just depends how much.
Personally don’t like stippling a gun, just because I am a little neurotic about things like that, though I do stipple some other small parts, tomahawks, mags, ect. I generally use some sort of traction tape when I have my hard use guns, otherwise I have rough checkering, and grips for them.
For the most part in my experience home stippling jobs aren’t going to sell well at all. If it is done by someone who has a name in the industry then you might have better luck. That said, you are going to take a loss on the gun just about regardless, and yes it does narrow the market quite a bit. If you are like some who thinks a garage stippling time is going to add $200 to the value of the gun, and that polishing all metal parts until they are mirrors adds another $300(Yes I’ve seen people trying to sell Glocks for $1k after doing both these) then you are going to be very disappointed.
I stippled my daily carry M&P9C years ago, as well as undercut the trigger guard. It gets filthy with dirt, lint, dead skin, etc. It really doesn’t bother me, and the trade off in the improved grip is totally worth the gun looking dirty. If it was a BBQ gun I might care, but it’s not.
I have found that just scrubbing with a GI tooth brush with some CLP on it will remove almost all of the impacted crud and make it look good enough, YMMV.
ETA: I’ll give the dish soap a try. I’ve never really cared that much about it being sparkly clean.
Same here, looks brand new when I’m done.
+1 Dish washing liquid, simple green etc. Just remember to re-lube where necessary.
My issue with the grip tapes and things like talon grips, is the glue allows the material to shift. I had Talon grips on my PPQ, and I would feel them shift during firing. This affected both my aim and my comfort level. I consider the outside of a firearm like the internals…must be cleaned regularly enough to keep function at a peak. Stippling, like all the other tiny spots in a firearm just require attention, and the reality is even grip tape, skateboard tape, Talon grips, etc. pick up skin particles, oils, bacteria, etc. and the difference is that those are impossible to clean out completely without damaging the material or weakening the glue.
I always thought the specific Glock tapes were too thick and allowed shifting but I found some black 3M grip tape that is like 300 grit Sandpaper and thin enough to prevent shifting. I don’t care about dirt and oil, just grip! Well, my disgusting white inlaid Stippling is sorta gross…
My usual carry is a Glock 9mm, and for years I have just used a piece of mountain bike inner tube on the grip.
I think I’ve been using the same inner tube for about 20 years now. It’s cheap, works good, and did I already mention it’s cheap?
Just take five minutes to clean the gunk out from time to time.
Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
I have been looking into this for my Gen3 G19. Debating stippling vs. 3M tape
Quick clean with Slip cleaner and a toothbrush works great. After I stipple I always run the tip over the entire surface knocking down all of the real sharp tips. It leaves a very uniform feel to the entire grip. After running stippled guns for so long the benefits greatly out weigh any crud or other nasty stuff. Shot a smooth Glock the other day and it felt odd.
I smooth mine out with sandpaper and it seems to be a very nice carry texture however I never even thought about all the crap that gets builds up in there.
Definitely cleaning my frame tonight after work… :eek:
Never really noticed anything building up in mine… Seems like a non issue, stippling is the only way to go for me, Glocks & M&P’s both need undercuts and Glocks need a hump reduction.
Dishwashing soap and the green GI toothbrush under hot water in the kitchen sink, fixes it right up.
I wouldn’t trade that stippling grip for tape as tape does shift, I do use the rubber innertube grip on an old P64 that is my summer pocket gun and that seems to work fine.
I’m a big fan of stippling and have done several guns with that method.
Now if it begins to smell like a rubber watch band on the third month of deployment, you might need to clean it up a bit.
My thoughts exactly. If you need extra texture to keep a hold on your firearm, I would consider moving down in caliber first.