Brass Grip Frames

Chris,
The 1860 grip frame can be adapted to the later SAA frame, and in fact has been in a few cases. The SAA frame is identical to the New Frontier everywhere that matters. However, I'm not entirely certain that the Italian copies are friendly to this conversion.
The earlier grip frame is larger and longer, with a different curve to the backstrap. To the SAA lover, it looks a bit weird, sort of like taking your hatchet, and fixing the bit to a club.
If you really want to play with an interesting grip frame, I believe Hamilton Bowen has the Keith #5 available for Colts. ..

Thanks for the info Mak. I seriously doubt I will try it as I like the blue steel better, I was just dreaming up projects and wondered if it was feasible. Chris S

I know that different folks have different ideas, makes it all fun.
For myself, and this is just my opinion, the best grip frames are the ones that place the master hand as close to the center line of the bore as possible. Thus the advantage of the Ruger Bisley frame, the Freedom Arms, and the Keith #5.  It has been my experience that the lower the grip, the greater the roll of the gun in the hand with the recoil pulse. Conversely, the higher the placement of the hands, the less the gun bucks and rolls, all else being equal.

I do find though, that with mild or lighter +P loads the standard SAA grip frame is pretty hard to beat. Its only when moving into +P 44 mags and the like, that the SAA grip frame runs out of forgiveness.