Dressing up some Ahrends grips

[David LaPell]

I have a thing for Ahrends grips. I had a set of elk stag grips on my Smith 27-2 but I needed to pay some bills so I sold the grips and the Tyler T and put on a set of Ahrends cordia grips. Ahrends grips are nice but they come with a pretty basic finish, so I smoothed that out and ended up putting on five coats of Tru-oil which really helped with the feel and the look. I also ended up putting on four coats of Tru-oil on my Ahrends Bubinga grips on my Smith 649.

Before

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/picture2896.jpg

After

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/picture2906.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/picture2907.jpg

Before

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/649ahrends-1.jpg

After

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/picture2901.jpg

[x101airborne]

Much mo betta. Good job!

[gwpercle]

Nice job. They look nice.
For whatever reason a finish containing oil brings out the beauty in just about any wood. I just placed an order with Ahrend's for two sets of his Retro Combats, one for my K-frame and one for my N-frame in matching cocobolo wood and getting them unfinished so I can do them in tung oil . After refinishing an old oak dining table and a few gun stocks with it I am impressed with how it brings out woods colors. But True-oil does a good job too and I have used it for years untill I bought this large container of tung oil finish and started using it. It is thinner and thus more time consuming to apply enough coats to build up a good finish....extra points for True-oil.

gary