New Life for Grips from eBay

[ithacaartist]

I encountered a pair of original grips on eBay several weeks ago and was lucky enough to win the auction at a very good price. They were in sad shape, but presented enough remaining material for my purposes. As it turned out, they were offered by a fellow forum member (who may confess his identity if he wishes). The pics below show the before and after story.

[318is_Parabellum]

Fantastic job on the grips! That grip screw looks pretty gnarly, I must say...

[lugerholsterrepair]

David, WOW! That's fantastic! Great job my friend. There must be some story here..Where you learned to checker..how long it took etc?

[rhuff]

That is an outstanding transformation!! I am duly impressed with your talent with a checkering tool. Great job.

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by lugerholsterrepair

David, WOW! That's fantastic! Great job my friend. There must be some story here..Where you learned to checker..how long it took etc?

Thanks all, and Tom [edit: Sorry for the "Senior Moment" JERRY!!], good to have a maestro's approval! They are on the skimpy side--but just a hair, and fine for a shooter set. They may fit a Luger without the stock lug a little better, as in the "before" pics from the previous owner.

Almost two years ago, I corresponded with Hugh Clark a bit, during his repair of a couple of million dollar chips I'd sent him. He recommended the book by Monty Kennedy about gun stock work, and I devoured the book in the two days after its arrival. After the purchase of a DemBart set of handles, and cutters to do 18 and 20 lpi, I first covered most of the outside of a calabash gourd with a 20 lpi pattern--nothing fancy, just the grid. This gave me at least a feel for how the tools worked, what they could do, or not, and how to overcome screw ups created by getting off track. I next tentatively set into one of the grips I'd had Hugh only repair and shape the wood on. But I stopped before it was altogether too late--this brief foray was enough to inform me that I needed a LOT more practice! I set the repaired original grips aside and set to work on the urethane repro grips for Mauser 29/70. I got along farther with them, one about half done, before I sensed danger once again and quit while I was at least not behind. I spent about a year practicing with Erma grips--much more expendable IMO--by first smoothing the contours by filing and sanding, then freshening the factory machine checkering as I extended the pattern all the way to the edges. This also let me rework the distortions out of the grooves that begin to look whacky as the pattern follows the curves approaching the grip straps. These were there because the machine that was used to apply the pattern does not turn its cutter to keep it perpendicular to the surface, resulting in progressively lop-sided diamonds as the angle of the curve increases.

I performed this for all my P.08 styled Erma pistols, except one ET-22, the carbine styled one, for a total of nine sets. After this, I did four pairs for of the KGP series Ermas. All that I own or have sold, have had their grips restored by me. A dip in paint stripper, a freshening and extension of the checkering, restoration of the material often found to have been hogged out of the backs of the left grips, and a coat of medium walnut stain and another or two of Danish oil, and you have a grip set that looks excellent, with the character of the wood much more evident and bright.

Well, it took two paragraphs to describe, but two years, almost, to do, worked into my "schedule" when possible. It has been a fun journey so far, and will continue--I have my sights on more original grips in need of help on eBay! And I have long guns with plain stocks which would also be good candidates.

[Edward Tinker]

wow, excellent - well done!

[Olle]

David,

That's just outstanding!

These came in a box of "misc Luger parts" I bought a while back, and I thought that the previous owner's ham handed attempt to checker them had doomed them to eternal rest in the parts bin. I actually had to relist them several times before you bought them, so I'm really glad to see them come back to life again!

[TheRomanhistorian]

David, this is impressive work and my hat is off to you.

[ithacaartist]

I forgot to mention the time-frame currently involved with these. The last one, I laid out and started cutting the pattern after roughing it in in the evening, finished the next day. I think I could do a pair now in a single day, say 8 hrs of actual time sctatching. Trust me when I say this is a craft that requires absolutely constant attention and concentration, to say the least! With this in consideration, I feel it is best for me to knock off when fatigue or fuzzy-headedness is first detected, take a break until I can focus again, thus using multiple sessions. I have a friend, Andrew Aasen, who does custom work for others; I think he has a decent reputation because his son, with whom I'm working on a metal fabricating project, says folks send him stuff from all over the country. He does masonry and stone work during good weather, and gun stock work over the winter. Anyway, Andy says he can't work for more than 15 minutes at at crack before taking a break.

I don't think I'll rise to the level of Hugh Clark; I think I'm too old to have the time to get really that good/effective. Also, Hugh and all the other pros at it tend to have a mechanized cutter setup, ala' Dremel or Foredom, which helps them go a lot faster. Doing checkering for other people would not be supported by my current speed level, but I look forward to the possibility of doing it as a favor or gift or the like... If, however, someone offers me a real deal on a shooter grade Navy or 1900, I'll bet they'd get several pairs of freshening out of me!

[John Sabato]

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

I don't think I'll rise to the level of Hugh Clark; I think I'm too old to have the time to get really that good/effective.

Don't be too quick on that mentality... I remember when Hugh started checkering, and just to give you some idea of his age, he had a dinosaur for pet at the time.

[Grantas]

Hi David,

Having tried chequering in the past I can appreciate your skill. Lovely pair of grips.

Regards
Grant

[CAP Black]

I think we can all see the care and commitment that went into the project. TLC does wonders for many projects especially for Lugers.
Thanks
Jack

[Douglas Jr.]

Wow. I'm really amazed!
A real work of art.
Douglas

[ithacaartist]

Thanks again, everyone. If this keeps up, I may have a hard time getting my head through a doorway. I love it when a plan comes together! BTW, I was out-sniped in the latest eBay efforts--but I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for mere to appear. In the meantime, G.T. has offered up a pair for a face lift. Let's see what I can do with this set...

[Sergio Natali]

David

Chapeau for the amazing work!

Sergio

[ithacaartist]

Here are some pics of another set of grips that needs a bit of work. Frist shot is of them as received from a benefactor on the forum, top of left grip kind of chewed up, much of the pattern is otherwise flattened by wear, and what remains has been filled in with a thick, glossy finish of some sort. Second shot of grips in repose within a baggie containing methylene chloride paint stripper. After an overnight soak, the goopy finish is letting go--I was afraid it was going to be an un-strippable plastic finish of some sort, but now think it's a glossy varnish. I'll add to pics as work progresses so everyone can see the process at work. All for today...

[ithacaartist]

Well, the grip panels had a good soak in stripper, and all the offensive old finish is gone. Below is a pic of the results of the soak, plus a clearing of the debris via a bit of hot water and a toothbrush--sweeping with the "grain" of the pattern. All the mayhem at the top of the left grip turns out to be the initials "MW"--very crudely cut. The challenge will be to refresh the existing pattern in conjunction with eliminating the initials. They're kinda deep, so we'll see how it goes. The pattern is 18 lpi, so I need to change over all my 20 lpi cutters to a set for this spacing. The three light colored lines are some I tentatively cleaned a little--couldn't resist seeing what relative color tones would appear.

[ithacaartist]

Well, here they are, so far. One is much brighter than the other in tone. If it's still walnut, I think it's sap wood. The left grip has one coat of Danish oil, medium walnut. The oil didn't really darken it very much.

[Curss]

WOW, what a difference!

[CAP Black]

Are you not considering some walnut stain?
Jack