Considering buying an unfinished grip for P938

[jgradyc]

I just got a new P938 with the rubber grip with finger grooves. It's the one with the factory laser. I don't like the grip and so I started looking for a replacement. On eBay, I found a guy that sells unfinished P938 grips in walnut, maple, oak, mahogany, cherry and maybe a couple more woods. 

 

I've never finished a piece of wood... or at least not in 50 years since high school shop class. Is it hard? What wood would you recommend? What stain? It's a two-tone Sig P938. If I mess up, can I just sand it down and start over? Sorry to post such a novice question, but nice grips really add a lot to the look of these little 1911-type guns. 

Edited December 16, 2015 by jgradyc

[TMF]

Commenting here so I can follow.  I've been looking to order some unfinished grips for my 1911 from Ahrends Grips.  Would be good to have some advice from our woodworkers here so I don't screw it up.

[Jonnin]

1) Stain soaks in.  You can't sand it off.  

2) if it has anything like checkering, you can't sand that either.

 

wood choice: what do you want, a light or a dark color?  Lots of rings / patterns?  Etc?   Try to describe what you would want to have.   Also go for harder and it will last longer ... cherry is a little softer than the others you listed here.

 

The wood choice chooses the stain... 

when staining: you can always put more on, but you can't take any off.   Ideally you would have some scrap of the same thing to test, here you should use the inside of the pieces and slowly get a feel with a q-tip or something how much you want to apply to get it to the darkness you want.

 

If you change your mind on DIY sig sells a few flavors of wood and this guy http://www.marschalgrips.com/?content=CZ-models  used to do almost anything if you sent him the originals to use as a pattern; I had him do a couple of mine including my rocked out Makarov.

[JAB]

Personally, I don't like stains.  To me, if I am using a nice piece of wood then it is all about the wood, including more or less its natural color.  I can see why some people would stain pine, an uninteresting piece of poplar or something plain like that but if I am going to use cherry, walnut, oak or so on then I want the final piece to look like the wood it is made of.  That is not to say that I might not put a clear coat of some kind - maybe clear varnish, etc. - on it to bring out the natural wood and help protect it.  Honestly, though, even for that I think I prefer just rubbing in a few coats of boiled linseed oil, etc.

Edited December 16, 2015 by JAB

[jgradyc]

I prefer a lighter color wood with noticeable grain. I don't know enough about woodwork to realize that a stain is different from a clear varnish! ?

[hipower]

I prefer a lighter color wood with noticeable grain. I don't know enough about woodwork to realize that a stain is different from a clear varnish! ?

 

From one who knows...lol...don't ask how. A stain is basically a color added. Varnish is usually just a protective coat.

[jgradyc]

Personally, I don't like stains.  To me, if I am using a nice piece of wood then it is all about the wood, including more or less its natural color.  I can see why some people would stain pine, an uninteresting piece of poplar or something plain like that but if I am going to use cherry, walnut, oak or so on then I want the final piece to look like the wood it is made of.  That is not to say that I might not put a clear coat of some kind - maybe clear varnish, etc. - on it to bring out the natural wood and help protect it.  Honestly, though, even for that I think I prefer just rubbing in a few coats of boiled linseed oil, etc.

Would linseed oil make it darker? Or would it just make the lines stand out more? 

 

I went by Home Depot and in the flooring department, they had samples of different wood. I discovered that I liked maple and the light oak best, but my favorite was "Alpine Elm."  That doesn't seem to be a wood choice for grips, so still looking.

 

Looking at pictures of wooden grips, I like the pattern where the lines aren't straight, but come out like a series of larger and larger concentric ovals. Any idea what that's called? I assume woodworkers have a name for it. 

Edited December 16, 2015 by jgradyc

[JAB]

I prefer a lighter color wood with noticeable grain. I don't know enough about woodwork to realize that a stain is different from a clear varnish! ?

 

I am far from being an expert.  That said, maple is generally a lighter colored wood and spalted maple has some interesting, darker lines through it (as does most spalted wood.)  Curly maple also has some interesting figure - especially if you get a really nice piece.  Birdseye maple is usually pretty nice, too.  Oak can be a lighter color, depending on the type and the actual piece of wood.  I have posted this pic, before, but just as an example the handle of this cane was made from a piece of cherry and the shaft was made from (iirc) oak:  Neither were stained or varnished, just rubbed with linseed oil.  The pic doesn't show the colors and the figure in the handle to the best effect but you get the idea:

 

[JAB]

Would linseed oil make it darker? Or would it just make the lines stand out more? 

 

I went by Home Depot and in the flooring department, they had samples of different wood. I discovered that I liked maple and the light oak best, but my favorite was "Alpine Elm."  That doesn't seem to be a wood choice for grips, so still looking.

 

Looking at pictures of wooden grips, I like the pattern where the lines aren't straight, but come out like a series of larger and larger concentric ovals. Any idea what that's called? I assume woodworkers have a name for it. 

 

Hah, I was typing my reply suggesting maple and light oak as you were typing your post saying you like maple and light oak.  I have never worked with elm.  Ash is another fairly light colored wood and is quite hard but doesn't always have a lot of figure - it is one of if not the main wood of choice for wooden baseball bats.  Linseed oil doesn't really darken the wood much.  It looks like it does, at first, just like getting the wood wet with water would give that appearance but lightens up again as it dries.  Linseed oil might leave it a little darker once it dries and it does help the figure show up better.  It keeps the wood from being too dry.  With linseed oil, you might have to give it a light coat now and then to keep the wood from getting too dry.

 

If I am understanding what you are asking about the grain patterns and figure then the type of wood you are asking about isn't really a type of wood, at all.  Instead, it is a laminate where thin sheets of wood - sometimes dyed different colors or sometimes simply using different types of wood, etc. - are laminated together.  If you notice, knife handles made from micarta sometimes have the same type of pattern because they are made essentially the same way - the difference being that micarta is layers of cloth laminated together while wood laminates are, of course, layers of wood.  The pattern you are talking about - if I am understanding you correctly - comes from sanding down through the layers of wood so that different layers are on the surface in different places.

 

EDIT:  I thought more about it and remembered that I have seen the type of pattern you talked about in natural wood.  As I said, I am not an expert nor even what I would call a 'woodworker', but rather someone who likes doing projects with wood, sometimes.  I think - much like the laminate woods - that pattern comes out when different layers of growth (growth rings) in the wood are exposed.  I guess it is especially clear when the lines that separate the growth rings are pretty prominant.  My suspicion for that, however, is that it is a feature that may or may not be found in an individual tree or even a particular piece of wood from a particular, individual tree and that it isn't a feature that can be said with any surety to be present across the board with one or another type or species of wood.  Also, even when it is present, that pattern may or may not be as regular or as pronounced as it is with laminates.

 

Dymondwood is one, such laminate.  Zoom in the pic at this link and take a look at this Buck knife with a cocobola dymondwood handle.  Is that the kind of pattern you are talking about?

 

http://www.knifecenter.com/item/BU0118BRS/buck-118-personal-skinner-fixed-blade-cocobola-dymondwood-handles-0118brs

 

Here is another dymondwood handled knife, from Benchmade:

 

http://www.knifecenter.com/item/BM150012/benchmade-hunt-15001-2-saddle-mountain-skinner-fixed-s30v-blade-dymondwood-handles-leather-sheath

 

This Remington pocket knife really shows what can be done with laminate wood:

 

http://www.knifecenter.com/item/REM19883/Remington-Heritage-Laminated-Wood-Four-Blade-Congress-Pocketknife-R-101-Model

 

I have never worked with laminates.  I have heard that they can actually be stronger than natural wood.

Edited December 17, 2015 by JAB