Wood grips - preservation tips?

[Sparkyshooter]

My new 686SSR has a pair of GORGEOUS wooden grips on it right out of the box. After just one night of practicing speed-loading, the grips have collected a whole bunch of nicks and scrapes. Is this normal for wood grips?

Luckily the gun also came with Uncle Mike's rubber hogue grips. They are also quality, but don't look as nice. I'm putting them on for now, until I can figure out what I'm doing to scratch my woodies up.

If anyone has any conventional wood-grip-wisdom for a newbie revolver shooter, please drop it here!

 

[Sparkyshooter]

My new 686SSR has a pair of GORGEOUS wooden grips on it right out of the box. After just one night of practicing speed-loading, the grips have collected a whole bunch of nicks and scrapes. Is this normal for wood grips?

Luckily the gun also came with Uncle Mike's rubber hogue grips. They are also quality, but don't look as nice. I'm putting them on for now, until I can figure out what I'm doing to scratch my woodies up.

If anyone has any conventional wood-grip-wisdom for a newbie revolver shooter, please drop it here!

 

[Tom M]

I cheat. I keep the nice wood grips on guns for show, but when I go to the range, they all wear goodyears. After cleaning, the wood goes back on, and no one's the wiser.

 

[MaineProbation]

Most of my grips which originally had a glossy varnished finish now have a traditional oil finish. I removed the varnish with acetone and a 000 or 0000 steel wool. Then I run a mixture of tung oil and turpentine into the wood and wipe it dry after it has had a few minutes to work into the wood. The resulting finish sheds moisture and does not show up the little dings and scratches like a glossy finish. And the oil finish looks rich against a blue, nickel or stainless weapon. It also shows off the grain much nicer than the shiny finish.

 

[boneman]

#1 to what Tom said. In this case cheating for me is the right thing to do. Thanks Larry

 

[sipowicz]

No matter how well they say they will care for them, don't lend them to termites.

 

[Sparkyshooter]

Still looking for tips on stock maintenance. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

If you want to keep the wood on all the time, buy some 3M green masking tape. It sticks great, and won't hurt the finish of your stocks. Place two or three layers on the top half of the left panel while shooting and simply peal off when done. It provides decent protection from normal nicks and dings from ejecting empties, and is easy to put on and take off.

 

[fyimo]

Originally posted by Sparkyshooter:
Still looking for tips on stock maintenance. Any help would be appreciated.

I think what they are saying is that unless you remove the wood grips and put on rubber grips or remove the current finish and replace it with an oil finish the stocks will get dinged up with use.

The other option is to shoot as it is and once they get beat up is to have them refinished by the guy (VM I think) on the forum here that does great work.does this.

 

[Sgt 127]

Chances are, if you just rub a little satin Tung oil on the nicks, they will fill in nicely and be almost gone.

Down side of wooden grips, if you use them, if you carry them, they will get beat up. No way around it. I've seen old duty guns that looked like they had pieces of driftwood screwed on them.

I suppose if you would like, you can occasionally rub them down with lemon oil or something, but, if the finish is still intact, the wood is pretty much sealed and the oil is really not going to get to the wood anyway.

A good buffing with Johnsons paste wax or Renissance wax will help keep them glossy, might help toughen up the finish and, at the very least, offer one more level of protection.

 

[Stophel]

The WORST thing you can do to wood is put a non-drying oil on it. Please, don't put lemon oil or cheap modern "boiled" linseed oil (which it isn't) on wood of any kind. Wood is perfectly happy being clean and dry. It does not need to be "fed" or "moisturized". Non drying oil just soaks into the grain, penetrating the fibers themselves, and turns wood into mush. Waxing is fine, but if you have a surface varnish, wax won't really stick to it anyway.

A lot of the modern varnishes that factories use to finish gunstocks/pistol grips suck, frankly. Hard and brittle, and flake off. A better quality varnish would help. (on the other hand, some of them are insanely tough..)

 

[s&wchad]

I use Johnson paste wax. It dries hard and protects the finish.