N-frame football target grips-silver washers. I got them cheap and thought I should make them look better. Just need some advice on how to attack this winter project. I looked at some Utube vids for a start but the missing piece of stock scares me a bit. Should I smooth out the area or use wood filler? I don't know if wood filler will stain properly or look like a frankenstein project. Anyone else tackle such a project? I would appreciate your comments/experience. Thx.

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Got nothing to lose by trying. I think it may come out great provided you take your time and plan ahead. Might try testing your color on the wood prior to patching the grip. I'd be interested in seeing how they turn out. Good luck.

There's wood filler on the market that takes stain well. check with your locakl Hardware Store or Hobby Shop.

If there is, I haven't found it. I've tried a few and most don't taketh stain well. However, I have heard (but not tried) that Bondo is good and takes a stain. Has anyone tried it?

Square up the damaged areas and fit in wood splices that are tight and match grain as closely as possible. Then glue them into place.
If you can't find wood to match grain and tecture/color,,go with a plain wood that you can stain and artificially grain to match. Poplar works well for this. Not much strength, but it doesn't need any for situations like here.

Leave the spliced and glued in blocks over size, clamp them tight. You want to avoid glue lines showing which are the hardest to hide.
Take time to fit them well.
Reshape the wood when set with files and carefully sand to the correct contour.
Remove any small dents and dings on the rest of the wood at this point. Some may just sand out,,some may need some steaming out first to raise them avoiding un-necessary wood removal to get them gone.
When you're ready for a finish, choose the stain color you want and carefully work on those spliced in areas to bring them in line with the rest of the wood color.
Sometimes a coating of sealer (shellac) on one or the other helps to limit the color penetration to better match up the two. Use of alcohol and oil stains can give you a better chance of blending in colors.

Grain lines can be covered with carefull application with a dry brush approach and artists colors. The basic 4 ground colors are about all you need plus black. The short ends of a bristle cut brush to very lightly dot the surface with the color,,don't actually brush and flow the colors onto the surface. The latter will only show as a muddy glob of color under your finish. It takes time and patience.

Faking in streaks of grain lines can be further done with french polish with colors used very sparingly first dotted onto your polish application pad. This best done over an existing coating of FP or another wood sealer. Don't over do or it just comes out looking like a coat of paint over the wood.

Forum member Dan Diedrich (dotdsd334) may also be able to help. He repaired a set of K/L grips for me that had a large chip just below the backstrap. The repair is so good it's extremely difficult to find and matches perfectly. $40.00 total including shipping.

If you want to do it yourself you can always commiserate with Dan regarding what materials and procedures have the best probability of success. Dan is a first class forum member and will assist you in any way that he can.

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That's what we do!

Thx for the ideas guys. I now have options that I didn't even consider.

Here are some pics of my DIY grips remake. First the bad. I drilled two holes in the chipped area in an attempt to anchor some wood filler to fill the space. I discovered the filler was not the best way to go in this case. Now I have two holes. Plan B. Fill the holes and round out the area as best I can with a file. What the hell, only 25 bucks, not a big loss if I F-up. Well, I think they turned out pretty good except for the obvious trade mark I now have. I'm happy and it was a fun project.
Thx to the guys who gave me ideas on this project. My skill level(low)moved me in this direction. I considered all the ideas.
Now it's onto relining a couple of wooden presentation boxes. Wish me luck.

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One set of grips I repaired looked just like yours. Splices and fillers will never look 'right'. So, in my situation, the grips had enough wood on the inside that would cover the missing piece. I cut out a piece slightly larger, squared the edges of the ***le' on the outside of grip, trimmed the 'new' piece to exact size and used Gorilla glue. Then using sand paper I got a perfect contour and the grain matched up very well and of course the color was perfect.

Looks great to me!!!!!!

I admire your patience and skill level.

Thank you sir.