Can anyone give me some advice on repairing nicks, chips and scratches on grips. What do you use as filler? Is the varnish a polyurethane? It looks like a gloss. Can you varnish over the existing coat or does all the varnish have to be removed? Any help is appreciated.

I've done a couple of grips and they turned out well. I didn't try to fill any nicks or chips and don't know if that would even be a good idea. I started out by removing all the old finish with sandpaper and doing any small nick repairs with the sandpaper while I was at it. I left the side panels alone. Then I used 000 steel wool on the entire grip to smooth out the surface. The grips felt really nice and looked good at this point. I then used a toothbrush to remove all the little pieces of steel wool. Then I went over the grips with Howards Feed N' Wax and dried them for 20 minutes in the dehydrator. Then more Howards Feed N' Wax and more drying. Next came a coat of Tru-Oil on the entire grip....lightly on the side panels. Dried in dehydrator for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours until dry. Steel wooled the Tru-Oil off down to the wood but left the side panels alone and used the toothbrush again to remove all the steel wool. Then I Tru-Oiled (not the side panels) and dried and steel wooled again this time lightly hitting the side panels with the steel wool. Next I used Howards Feed N' Wax again and dried for about 20 minutes in the dehydrator. When done I wiped the grips off with a thin cotton towel and used the towel to do a bit of buffing on the grips before reinstalling the grips. That's it......

LDThornton, you knew when you started the project you would need a "before" & "after" photo for us to see. Of course, I'm not someone who should give anybody a hard time for not posting photos, all my investment has been in guns and bullets so far. I'm sure your method worked well and the finished product should work for the intended use very well. That dehydrator you mentioned, is that what it was intended to be used for?

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

Jerky, fruits, vegetables, hobby craft, ect. At least that's what the manual says.

If there are large chips gone, pretty much cutting in a patch is the only option. The problem is wood match. This is my first effort at repair here:

Grip repair

Since posting the after pics here and elsewhere, several folks have suggested trying to match the grain with an artists brush and stain. A friend that does museum restorations suggested that even now after finishing, I could use thinned artists oils to put a better match on the grain.

The factory finish is Polyurethane and most recommendations to me were to use the wipe on type. Zip Strip took the old finish off no problem.