What can I put on my pre-war grips to make them..

Memphis

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...to make them have a little more luster. I don't mean any type of shelack or anything like that. Just anything that will not damage them in any way and will give them just a little more shiney look. I hesitate to use the word shiney. Lots of the pics on this forum have awesome looking grips and I am just searching for what you guys use (if anything). Oil, tongue oil? So far I've never put anything on my grips. What do you guys do if anything?

Thanks, Roger
 
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...to make them have a little more luster. I don't mean any type of shelack or anything like that. Just anything that will not damage them in any way and will give them just a little more shiney look. I hesitate to use the word shiney. Lots of the pics on this forum have awesome looking grips and I am just searching for what you guys use (if anything). Oil, tongue oil? So far I've never put anything on my grips. What do you guys do if anything?

Thanks, Roger
 
I usually just use 'RIG' on the entire gun.... if the grips are a bit dried out or dull or slight nicks and scratches, any of the stuff that antique furniture stores use to touch up their stuff, like Formby's or Old English, scratch and nick filler/polish,does work wonders......some will even use just "wax" for cars and or furniture... the museums use some stuff called "Rennaisance" ( forgive the spelling)...............
 
I've used Howard's brand furniture wax. Most antique stores sell it. It replenishes the wood without harming it.
Chris
 
The wrong thing to use is TruOil. The right thing to use is what the factory
used in the first place.

The factory used a mixture of linseed oil, wax, and turpentine. Its a bit
messy, and seems to take a long time to dry, between coats.

The easiest replication is just linseed oil. Dave Chicoine advised putting a drop
on your thumb, and then rubbing it in - almost until it is dry. You can wipe any
excess off. Let it air-dry for a day or two, then repeat it. Two or three coats
will get the grips looking like they left the factory yesterday.

Later, Mike Priwer
 
Originally posted by mikepriwer:
The wrong thing to use is TruOil. The right thing to use is what the factory
used in the first place.

The factory used a mixture of linseed oil, wax, and turpentine. Its a bit
messy, and seems to take a long time to dry, between coats.

The easiest replication is just linseed oil. Dave Chicoine advised putting a drop
on your thumb, and then rubbing it in - almost until it is dry. You can wipe any
excess off. Let it air-dry for a day or two, then repeat it. Two or three coats
will get the grips looking like they left the factory yesterday.

Later, Mike Priwer

+1 easy to aply, hard to screw up, cheap, and the correct stuff in the first place.
 
Hello,
Mike has it right.To do it, take a beer bottle cap(3 of them)1 with linseed oil,1 with mineral spirits,and 1 with spar varnish.Go over the wood with alcohol- acetone is better - dip 0000 steel wool in the three bottle caps and rub.Continue until it looks right.
wayne byram
 
For my two cents.....

I clean them with dilluted Murphy's Oil Soap, and a toothbrush, let them dry a day or two. It will raise the grain a bit, so use the oil soap sparingly and more elbow grease. Then use 0000 wool to bring the raised grain down. I then apply Butchers Wax Bowling Alley Paste. It has all the same ingredients, turp, linseed and wax but, it's all mixed in an easy to use paste. The results are a nice soft patina, not a high polish like Tru Oil which has to be buffed down quite a bit to get the same results.
 
Lefty

That is interesting to know, about Butchers Wax Bowling Alley Paste.

When I was given the information about those three ingredients, I
asked what the proportions were suppossed to be. The answer was
"I don't know" ! I tried various proportions, but it was always
very liquidy - too much linseed oil and/or turp.

What else is in the Butcher Wax besides these three ingrdients ?

Regards, Mike Priwer
 
Wax. You can melt in paraffin or beeswax or carnauba wax with a hair dryer. Buff it out. Clean and dry, and won't harm the wood at all.

If you still have plenty of varnish on the surface of the wood, just use a paste wax. Renaissance wax is supposed to be good, though I haven't used any.

NEVER put any kind of nondrying oil on wood. NEVER. Contrary to popular belief, wood does not need to be "fed", nor does it need to be oiled to keep it from "drying out". Wood is perfectly happy being clean and dry.

Linseed oil (as it is found today) will not dry, for all intents and purposes (it will, but requires lots of direct sunlight, and must be applied in THIN coats). If it is slopped on, it will never dry, and the oil will soak into the fibers of the wood itself, turning it into soft, mushy goo. Gun oil is DEATH to wood. I hear so many people who say that they rub down the whole gun, wood and all, with an oily rag. Makes my skin crawl. Oh, how many old Model 11 shotguns have I worked on that have been propped up in a corner for years with the wood at the wrist of the stock soaking up gun oil...

Tru oil is a linseed oil based varnish, and I have had mixed results with it. Most of the time it will be good quality, sometimes it will produce a flaky, brittle finish. Just a bad luck bottle, I think. Tru Oil does NOT keep. Once it is opened, use what you need and you may as well throw the remainder away. It will harden up in the bottle.

A good spar varnish will work well, though I have found pretty much all modern varnishes will produce dull, lifeless looking wood.

Wood finishes is a subject near and dear to my heart. I build 18th century type flintlock guns, and make my own varnish.
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Originally posted by mikepriwer:
Lefty

That is interesting to know, about Butchers Wax Bowling Alley Paste.

When I was given the information about those three ingredients, I
asked what the proportions were suppossed to be. The answer was
"I don't know" ! I tried various proportions, but it was always
very liquidy - too much linseed oil and/or turp.

What else is in the Butcher Wax besides these three ingrdients ?

Regards, Mike Priwer

Mike;

As far as I can recall, just turp, wax and linseed oil mixed into a paste compound. I'll look over the listed ingredients on the can when I get into the shop today. Will let you know if there are any other ingredients.
 
This whole thread has been pretty interesting so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I have a can of KIWI neutral shoe polish and it works quite well. Just apply it, let it sit a few minutes and buff. Use a toothbrush to clean out the checkering. For really dry geips, give it a second coat. For old grips as well as leather I like to put the items on the furnace to gently warm up and absorb whatever is on the leather or wood
 
I use clear Butchers wax on all of my refinishes and restorations. Been using on gunstocks for 40+ years.
DW
 
I have had excellent success with a simpler approach, based on something forum member Marksman posted about grip refinishing. If it doesn't need refinishing, and just some help, using Tung oil works great. it's a natural wood oil, not any synthetic or petroleum product. Applying it sparingly by hand and rubbing until warm, then letting dry for a few days is the trick. Here's a link to his whole refinishing technique. I've used the whole process for fantastic results.

Oops, sorry, not on my home computer where it is bookmarked. Search for posts by Marksman and "tung oil" and "grip."
 
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