Culina grips in Osage Orange

[sprscientist]

I just like how osage orange looks against either blued or stainless finish. The set on the 686 just arrived.

Conversions on a 610-3

On a 28-2

 

[Monstermuley24]

I'll second liking the look of the osage orange! A very nice member here on the forum traded me a set of Keith Brown Ropers in osage orange. They are among my favorites

Awesome set of Culinas

 

[41special]

Beautiful 4 sure

 

[6GUNSONLY]

Under a finish as on your grips, does Osage tend to darken with age? I know it does on tool handles and such, but they aren't finished.

 

[sprscientist]

My understanding is that osage orange, and many light-colored woods, darken with time but that is typically correlated with exposure to sunlight. These grips spend 99% of their time in the safe and none have yet darkened.

 

[SLT223]

629-1 w/ Culina combats in Osage Orange. These grips were purchased and installed about ten years ago. They've seen way more palm sweat than sun light. They were lighter yellow when new like the ones above. They looked exactly like what the 610 is wearing in post #1. I actually much prefer the darker color. Color aside, I'm a huge fan of the Culina combats. They are a little larger than factor and give more surface area around the back strap, which helps with distributing recoil force....not trivial with a small .44 Magnum.

 

[Thaddeus Beauregard]

I think osage orange looks nice when newly worked, and it is an extremely durable wood. The grips shown are beautiful! However, it's also one of the least colorfast woods there is and will almost certainly darken over time no matter what you do or don't do. Finishes applied might slow it down, but doesn't seem to stop it. I wouldn't mind that so much if it changed to the appearance of SLT223's grips and then stopped, but unfortunately, all the older osage items I've seen eventually reach a muddy brown. The whole appeal of osage for me is its unusual color, so I've shied away from getting osage grips for this reason.

 

[SLT223]

I couldn't edit the old above post. Found a pic from 8yrs ago…

8 years ago

Yesterday

 

[sprscientist]

I await the darkening on mine. Even dark, it is a handsome wood to my eye.