How to Silicon Carbide Your Grip

This topic is always fun to discuss with my students and fellow 2A friends. Let’s first discuss what and why Silicon Carbide.

What is it? Silicon carbide is an extremely hard synthetic material made from silicon and carbon. It is lightweight, heat-resistant, and extremely durable. It has become a pretty popular material in the firearm industry, especially for firearm grips. I have been doing this method for years and am now a big advocate for it. I have had plenty of handguns, especially those that came from the manufacturer with a non-aggressive or smoother texture to the grip. This doesn’t help too much during those days when you can fry an egg on the pavement, and your hands and arms are pretty moist in the summer months of NC. This can substantially affect my grip in the wrong direction of what I am looking to achieve when I hit the range. I am looking for a consistent grip for each shot, and the silicon carbide application helps with this and allows for quicker follow-up shots, better management of muzzle flip, and more consistent grip pressure. 

Almost all of my handguns have this applied to them. So when one of the staff members here at Sanctum asked if I could do one for him, I very happily said: “Of course!” 

So here we are, and in this article, I am going to explain to YOU just how easy it is to apply this to your firearm, if you were looking to give it a try! Don’t worry, it is fairly simple and doesn’t take much time to do. NOTE! Silicon carbide is permanent, and you won’t be able to take it off (or very easily), so if you want to try it on an object you don’t care too much about previously, I recommend it.

Firstly, gather your supplies! You will need a work space area (I just used a table and placed a cardboard target down for my workspace including where I mix the epoxy on), a couple sizes of paintbrushes (smaller ones work better in my opinion, to get into smaller crevasses), painter’s tape, sandpaper (I use around 150-100 grit, or any fine grit sandpaper), epoxy (I like the BSI Bob Smith Industries 2-part, 15 minute epoxy), a bowl and spoon, and of course the silicon carbide (I have tried a few and this one in 60/90 is by far my favorite for the look and the texture). Gloves recommended for extra protection.

Once you have your area prepared, here comes the most time-consuming, but an important step! Let’s tape off all of the areas you don’t want the silicon carbide to go or get into. I tape the bottom area of the mag well, cover all pins, the magazine release, and any other areas you don’t want to put silicon carbide in. When applying the tape, feel free to get creative with it! I am a perfectionist, and so for me, this takes the most time of the entire process, as I like to ensure each area is as close to perfection as I can. 

Once everything is taped, take your sandpaper and rough up the grip area. This part doesn’t have to be perfect, just enough to rough up the surface to help the epoxy stick to it.

Now it is time to mix your epoxy. For this part, you won’t have too much time to work with, so make sure you are ready to apply the grip and ready for the silicon carbide. So have your bowl of silicon and spoon ready to go. Now, squeeze out about a half-dollar-sized amount of the epoxy and a half-dollar size of the hardener (equal parts here) and then mix them with your brush.

Once you mix them together evenly, apply the epoxy to your grip evenly. Don’t worry if you make a mistake; it is pretty forgiving to work with. Once covered, it should have a nice, thick shine to it, evenly. Now hold the grip over your bowl and take your spoon to sprinkle the silicon carbide over the epoxy areas. Make sure you coat it heavily. Go over it a few times, especially in the areas that are still shiny from the epoxy. I personally don’t like to push the silicon carbide into the epoxy, I don’t think the look of it comes out very nice, so I repeat coating it heavily.