On December 8th, I posted a picture on social media showing an LCR and a J-Frame fitted with Hamre Forge produced stocks, which were white.
This post sparked many questions such as:
- Are you offering colors now?
- Can we buy them in white/grey?
- I thought you weren’t using white materials until mid-2025?
- Why are you messing around with white material when we ordered black grips?
These are all valid questions, and I haven’t fully addressed them until now.
There was significant anticipation leading up to Black Friday on November 29th, extending through the entire following weekend, culminating in the release of our collaboration with American Fighting Revolver for the Hamre Forge AFR UC’s. The excitement was palpable, and based on our experience, we anticipated a high demand for these items.
To prepare for this event, I ordered a substantial amount of black powder for the release and the entire month of December.
Our transition to using this new powder had some hiccups, but we managed to overcome them, producing hundreds of grip sets weekly. Everything was set for a successful Black Friday and Cyber Weekend.
However, as the saying goes, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
On November 27th, I received an email stating, “Hello Ryan, We received some unfortunate news from [your powder manufacturer] this morning – they are completely out of stock of [your black] material. This is a complete surprise to us, and I know this is going to throw a wrench in your plan.”
This news was a punch to the gut. We immediately held an internal meeting to explore our options. It was decided that same day to order white powder, develop a profile to sinter it, and introduce material dyeing into our manufacturing processes.
Simultaneously, with help from our material reseller and manufacturer, we searched across the US and globally for any available black material but were unsuccessful. This confirmed our need to proceed with the white powder and dye process.
Dyeing is not a minor task for us; we had to purchase dyeing equipment, learn the process, and integrate it into our operations. Although it’s an industry-standard process, we had hoped to delay this until mid-2025.
From November 27th to December 8th, when we posted pictures of the white stocks, only 11 calendar days passed. Within the previous 10 days, we ordered and received white powder, adjusted our industrial machine to use it, and set up a commercial dyeing process.
As of last week, on December 11th, we began re-shipping grips.
We conducted destruction, rub, and scratch tests to validate that the dye penetrated deeply into the material, which it did. However, there’s a caveat: the dye isn’t deep enough to allow for filing or shaping like with our previously all-black panels. If you reshape the grips and expose the white material, we can try to re-dye them black, but we cannot guarantee the dye will take.
If you’d prefer to wait for grips that are solid black throughout, please email me. Due to the supply shortage, the powder manufacturer has air-freighted a pallet specifically for us, which is currently being expedited through customs and should reach us before the end of December.
If waiting has become too inconvenient, I can issue a refund; please let me know.
I’ve been reassured by the manufacturer that they’ve taken steps to prevent future shortages in the U.S., but from our side, it seems we’ll need to purchase and store larger quantities of powder, which is quite an expense.
As mentioned, orders started shipping last week and have been going out daily since then.
We appreciate your support, encouragement, and feedback throughout this year. 2024 has been a wild ride, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved, using each hurdle as a learning opportunity to improve continuously.
God bless and Merry Christmas!
Ryan Hamre