Sorry I did not finish my posting for those of you who are looking for more information. I have been really busy at my job and sort of lost priorities with my checkering hobby :biglaugh:. In fact, I have not even had time to make any grips or more importantly, checker any grips. So my apologies to those who were looking for more... OK, lets do this!
Coating finished grips:
The final step in making grips or checkering grips is to coat them. We coat the wood for two reasons, to protect the wood, and to draw out the beauty of the wood. The second reason is more important in my book. Once the right coating hits the wood, the wood almost comes to life. Lets just back up for a second… I have learned a lot of lessons in my hobby of checkering grips. One lesson is that
BEFORE you apply any coating or finish, ensure you are completely satisfied with the finished product of your grips. Ensure you have the non-checkered areas sanded as smooth as you want before you checker start checkering, ensure you have all voids, inclusions, or cracks filled in. Be positive that the checkering you have just done is up to your standard. Once you apply polyurethane or other coatings, it is extremely difficult to go back and fix errors. Trust me- many hours of checkering can be messed up by trying to fix mistakes later.
After you are happy with your checkering and your final product, now it is time to apply the coating to the grips. Each kind of wood has different properties and will take coatings much differently. You must be sure the kind of wood you are using is compatible with the coating you want to use. If you don’t know, try the coating on a piece of scrap wood-
DO NOT just try a coating on your grips you just spent 4 hours checkering. If the coating does not dry properly or is incompatible with the wood, it will be a pain to remove and fix.
A quick down and dirty on finishes:
There are many different coatings for handgun grips. Basically you want a coating that is water resistant, resistant to sweat and will make the wood look great. Oil finishes such as pure tung oil or boiled linseed oil will penetrate the wood and will protect the wood as it saturates the wood. There are many oil finishes that can be used. We could write a whole article about finishes and application- so please do your homework before jumping in.
Some oil finishes are advertised as “Tung Oil Finish”, “Teak Oil Finish” or “Danish Oil Finish”. Any coating that has the name “finish” in it has a blend of oils and some type of synthetic polyurethane blend added. These blends are made to be easier to work with and are decent for our purpose. Formby’s Tung Oil Finish is good for grips. Just know that it is a “blend” and not pure 100% tung oil. With several coats of this stuff, a shine will start to show. The more coats you add, the shinier it will get.
Poly or “polyurethane finishes” are simple and durable to use. The important fact about “poly” is that it does not cure when used on oily woods. Poly is an excellent coating to use on non-oily woods such as walnut, desert ironwood, or kingwood (and many others). I prefer using it in spray cans because it sprays on nice and has no clean up. I also like using poly because you can wet sand between coats with 400, 600, or 800 grit sandpaper and then spray on numerous additional coats. Similar to painting a car, the smoother you get the surface and sand in between coats; the nicer the final product will look. Poly comes in satin, semi-gloss, and high gloss. I prefer using semi-gloss on most of my grips. Wet sanding between about 6 coats will produce a beautiful, glass sheen finish. Man- once you get the hang of it, you just don’t want to use anything else! Poly is very durable and almost resistant to everything. For me, it is the cats’ meow!!!
In my experience, natural oily woods such as cocobolo or brazilian rosewood will not take a poly finish. The wood is simply is too oily to cure properly. I have tried using acetone to remove the oil from the surface with minimal results. In cases of oily woods, use an oil finish, pure oil or Birchwood/Casey “Tru-oil”, which is a weird blend that really cures on most anything. Basically all oils and oil finishes penetrate the wood and poly cures on top of the wood.
Lacquer is an interesting coating for grips as well. Because of its different properties than poly, sometimes lacquer has some benefits of use. The first benefit is that it dries quickly, and is easily sanded between coats. I successfully used a spray on lacquer on a pair of cocobolo grips. Typically I couldn’t get poly to dry, but because of the quick drying characteristics of lacquer, it cured up great and looked awesome only after 2 coats.
Hint: I like using foam beauty make-up applicators (the triangle ones) to apply oil finishes to my grips. They are virtually lint free, very cheap and helps you avoid cleaning brushes after your work. You can get them in the ladies make-up department in any drug store. I know… I didn’t know about them either- who knew?
Spray on finishes on grips with checkering:
If you are coating grips with half and half checkering, I suggest taping off (blue painters tape or automotive pin stripping tape) and covering up the checkering first. I do this so I can spray on a about three coats of poly, then sand using 400 or 600 grit on the smooth wood part of the grip panel. Then I spray another light coat or two until I am happy with the results of the smooth wood surface. After the smooth surface is good, I remove the tape covering up the checkering. Next, spray one coat over the entire grip panel, front and back. Let that dry, then spray another coat or two if needed.
* The key to spraying on coatings on checkered grips is “knowing” when to stop. Before you know it, you may have sprayed numerous coats and you will notice the checkering is disappearing- it is basically drowning in your coatings! This is why I cover up the checkering with tape and then spray the smooth surface first. The smooth surface takes a few coats to get looking good, more so than the checkering. So just spray enough coats to get a protective surface on the checkering. That is it. Just be sure to let them dry properly.
Fixing problems with coatings:
Once you apply a finish to checkered grips it is very difficult to remove the coating. If the coating does not cure, you will end up with a sticky mess. The key is to ensure you have the proper coating to match the wood, ensure you don’t apply it too thick (no runs) and to know there is no turning back.
If you do have a problem with the coating, I have used acetone for stripping the finish down to the wood. Be sure to use gloves and goggles and use it outside in some ventilation. Getting the coating off the checkering is really difficult. Acetone and a soft bristle brush helps, but it will only work so much. The only other option I know is to go over all the checkering with your single line cutter again- what a pain that is. Meanwhile, while using the cutter over the finish, the cutter will get clogged and you will have a mess. After screwing up your finish on your nice checkering, you will learn to get it right the first time.
I made a home made fixture for spraying and coating my grips. Basically you want them hanging so nothing is really touching the grip panel when you are spraying them or wiping on the oil finish. Either make a fixture or use wire and hang them off your back patio.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to assist. Again, this is how I do checkering.
Mr. Science gets credit for teaching me through his tutorial. The rest of my training has come from trial and error… If anyone has a better way of doing things, I would certainly like to hear it. Checkering grips is a lot of fun. The finished product, although small, speaks volumes when matched up to your favorite 1911. Enjoy…
Thanks,
Steve