Happiness is a new gun 2

**Bawanna** · 04-29-2022, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by JohnR

A lot of Ruger's blued guns turned plum color, it's just how it is, I guess. I can't tell which is the old one, but those wood grips look awesome.

I was gonna say that too, those wood grips are fantastic.
I'm struggling already, the outfit that makes the checkering tools I like apparently closed up. I thought I had several more sets of cutters but checking I don't have hardly any. There's gunline which never worked for me and one or two I've never heard of. But prices are 10 or 15 times more than what I was paying at Dem Bart. I gotta find somebody that has them left over and buy all I can find.

**JohnR** · 04-29-2022, 04:14 PM

Speaking of wood grips, these arrived today.

**dao** · 04-29-2022, 04:37 PM

The top one is the '95 John. Bottom is the 2014. Those grips on your revolver look like Bawanna grips. Are they? Sure are handsome.

Well in light of that Colonel I ordered another set from Kahr for the newer K9. At just $58 they're a pretty good bargain. If you find another source for your cutting tools and we can find some shiny black wood we'll revisit this. Oh, and I was meaning to ask you about Ebony. The things I've seen made from it have been mostly black, but I recently saw some Ebony grips that were brown. Does Ebony come in various shades?

**JohnR** · 04-29-2022, 05:33 PM

The SP101 grips are sold by a guy in Illinois, Grips4u.net. I’m very pleased with them. You don’t really see square butt SP101s but it looks and feels good.

**Bawanna** · 04-29-2022, 06:08 PM

Ebony does come in different shades, there's also black and white ebony and different varieties of Ebony. Gaboon Ebony is usually very dark and consistent, sometimes has a streak or two running through it. That's what I was gonna look for.
It's very expensive but excellent stuff and good to work with since it's so hard.
I'm not out of the checkering game but darn close, cutters get dull, slows things down.
I'm even soaking some of my cutters in Coke (never drink the stuff) to see if it will eat into them and maybe they'll cut a little longer. So far no great results.
Some gun shops used to stock Dem Bart cutters, I know the one I worked at for a bit had a bunch but they are long since changed hands. The search continues.

**Bawanna** · 04-29-2022, 06:15 PM

A person might be able to take those Kahr grips, sand the finish off around the checkering recut the checkering and use real dark stain.
I've got some stuff that's made to take like Birch or light woods and make it dark. It sure makes Birch dark. I don't know what it would do with Pao Faro which I think is what Hogue uses to make Kahrs wood grips.

**dao** · 04-29-2022, 07:01 PM

Yeah the grips I've bought from Kahr are sold as Pau Ferro. And Hogue does make them as you said.

I contacted a lady at Hogue who oversees their custom work to see what they might be able to offer us. They don't have anything right now aside from some sets of raw aluminum grips for K9/K40s, that I believe are checkered and finished but have not been anodized. She said she'd sell them for $50 a set. They might be pretty nice if polished, especially on a gun like the one that Bird polished.

I don't know if you've seen any of Hogue's black aluminum grips for other guns, but they come in smooth and checkered, and either matte or satin (and gloss for some guns). I had a set of the satin grips on my M9 and they were beautiful. G10 is still my favorite for their pure grippiness but they're just not black enough for what I was hoping to find for this K9. Though if I could find a black checkered set I'd likely buy them. I had a set of the Lakeline G10s for my MK9 sometime back but didn't really care for the pattern, which is sort of a golfball cut. I gave them away. They were well made, just not the right look for me.