Well, I got restless, and bought a pair of Cocobolo knife handle scales on da'Bay. They were a little large, sooo, I decided to make a pair of grips for my Ruger MK II, which had been wearing the same plywood grips for 10+ years. (They look better than they sound, especially since I refinished them.)

Boy, that Cocobolo is hard stuff! Dulled a perfectly good scroll saw blade, it did! After roughing the blanks, I used a drum sander on my new drill press to bring them down to close. First time I had used the thing, and I kept smelling a strange odor. I checked the motor, and it was HOT! That is where the smell was coming from. Back to the store it went, and now, I'm looking for a new press, with only the right grip made.

I will rout the left grip as soon as the new press follows me home. THIS 'un will NOT be from Harbor Freight! Guaranteed!

The Question: How do you refinish cocobolo, which is a species of rosewood? It is dense and oily. Do you just Tru Oil it like walnut? I don't have the equipment to do a finishless shine like they claim to do on the knifemaking forums. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Cocobolo is dense and hard which makes it superb for pistol grips and knife handles....especially those that work for a living.

Below is a Cocobolo set I made for a 1911 Colt, 'twas a working gun and the grips show a little wear from a lot of abuse. I don't have that pistol anymore....Lord do forgive me.

Though Cocobolo seems oily, Tru Oil works well and sets just the same as it does on Walnut. My method on all woods is to liberally apply, let set for a few minutes, then buff off with flannel cloth until dry to the touch. When that coat is dry/cured I lightly sand with 320 for the next coat. That's repeated 3 or 4 times a week, depending on humidity....until I get 25 to 30 coats.

Obviously fully checkered grip panels don't get sanded, so what I do with them is thin the Tru Oil 2:1 with VMP&Naptha and scrub each coat on with a soft bristled tooth brush....until I reach the level of appearance I want. The first couple of coats are quite dull and then progress through satin to glossy.

Tru Oil is just the ticket................

I use false-oil Sniper, and do everything opposite as wildswalker does.


Eric

Boy, I must be bored this morning.

You have two problems, shaping the grip pannel and finishing the pannel. Do not try to hold rosewood by hand and run a router on it. It tends to splinter and grab the cutter head. You may end up with something in the router besides wood. When shaping rosewood by hand, work with a sander or a motor tool and a fine cutter head of carbide. Do not burn the wood while sanding it to shape.

All of the rosewood species contain oil. What you want to do with any rosewood is to sand it to the last grade, then bathe the surface with acetone. Scrub it with a soaked cloth and flush it again. About three washings should do. After it dries start the application of the finish oil, with 320 or 400 grit wet and dry.

Sniper for a proper wood finish you want to fill the wood pores. Open pores or open grain in custom gun wood is a neon sign that flashes "amature."

Go to Articles, Shooting section and read the article on In the Wood Finish. You can apply a polished stone looking finish by hand. You do not need any fancy equipment, just elbow greese.
Ed

ElyBoy wrote:

I use false-oil Sniper, and do everything opposite as wildswalker does. Eric Boy, I must be bored this morning.

Eric, go shoot some targets

I had to be in my Sportsmen's Club booth for 2 days at Game Fair this weekend.
It has rained non-stop for 3 days.
NASCAR Michigan Race is postponed for another day.
I want to shoot bad without getting wet.
Hunting is two weeks away, and BOY am I BORED.
I will try to keep my smart butt remarks aimed at my wife when she gets home instead of you guys.

Eric

ElyBoy wrote:

I want to shoot bad without getting wet. I will try to keep my smart butt remarks aimed at my wife when she gets home instead of you guys. Eric

1. You can't even think about shooting without getting wet, admit it!

2. Fire the smart butt remarks at us, partner, not at the wife. We all want you to survive for hunting season opener

She came home not too long ago, and I was going to start firing away, but lost ALL courage with the first "look" that she gave me.
You're right, it's much safer to aim at you guys.
Have wild rice and pork loin ready for supper, so I'm on safe ground for the time being.
She still doesn't know about the P38 that I bought for her, so I think that I will save surprise till after hunting season.
UPS delivered the holster that I bought for it today, so I'm safe on that one too.

What was this post about??? Finishing grips.
"CARRY ON BOYS!!!"

Eric

Eric,
A man must know his limitations as JW said. If you want to rant, you best rant on us, your lovely wife will part your hair with a rolling pin.

I feel bad for you, naw I don't, I wish I could not shoot for a couple of days or weeks.... But Doc gave me the word, my recovery is going fantastic, his words, and I should be able to shoot by November. Had my first active therapy today, after 9 weeks of passive therapy and not being allowed to lift my left arm.
Ed

Good luck on your recovery Ed.
I'm the Rangmaster and run a Pistol League, so I get to shoot this afternoon.
I will leave home right after the Cup Race, and will be there until around 8:30pm tonight.
Rain or shine, I expect to shoot quite a few boxes of my reloads today.


Eric

SwampFox wrote:

What you want to do with any rosewood is to sand it to the last grade, then bathe the surface with acetone. Scrub it with a soaked cloth and flush it again. About three washings should do.

Don't really hurt on any wood, but not required on Cocobolo............

SwampFox wrote:

for a proper wood finish you want to fill the wood pores. Open pores or open grain in custom gun wood is a neon sign that flashes "amature."

"Amature" is sloppy lines, sanding scratches, rounded off corners...poor fit up/inletting, crappy checkering, ect.

Personally I dig the old retro look of unfilled grain found on antique firearms.....tuff to replicate that properly from an amature's standpoint. The only concession given there is the wood is more likely to absorb moisture. The "look" of it is on par with Classic.

I damned sure though wouldn't pay custom gun maker money for filled grain and not get it......

Polished rocks, shine and bling have no place on hunting rifles, or working guns....I tend not to go there.

I was the Supervisor of one of the biggest sanding depts. in the Midwest for 10yrs. wildswalker.
A lot of the work that I did was hands on R&D.
What SwampFox said was dead on. When he says fill the grain, he is talking about sanding from course to fine sandpaper, or steel wool.
If you do that, the grain is "filled". With courser sandpaper as a finish, the stain will penetrate the wood more and leave a darker finish. Finer sanding will close up the grain more and leave a lighter finish, and show the wood much better.
Doing it your way will leave a blotchy finish.
My Dad was an old time gunsmith and stock maker who did it SwampFox's way.
You must have seen the "old way" done by a couple of tavern drunks, and figured that all of the old timers did it like that.
If you want wood done that way, send it to me. I'll toss it in the toilet, flush it a couple of times, stain it, and charge you lots of money for my "old time" finish job.

Eric

i always thought the statement of filled grain was the pores of the wood were filled, when done with sand papering it is done with the dust from the sanded wood/finish thats being sanded... and the only thing a shine is good for on a firearm is it accually does protect the wood a little better, but you dont have to have it shine like a diamond to get the same protection..

Ellie Boy.....

I'd source some help with the comedy routine if me was you, 'cause you suck.......and you've a few issues with reading comp so's I'll hang a few images for you to gawk at and save you the trouble of needing to read. We'll just touch on the high spots, try to grasp the concept.........

My latest project started with this........an action and a chunk.



Milled out a rough inlet, hand worked a fit up...yada,yada,yada.







Not really a bad start for a tavern drunk me thinks........



Should add that this image is of the solid Ebony forend tip I inlayed, as an after thought, after the barreled action was completely inletted. What a pain in the ass that was for an amature......



Since this is my personal rifle I allowed myself the same graciousness my customers get for determining fit and feel, which is a hands on period of quality time on my range determining if the work is in fact satisfactory via live fire before any actual finish work begins. I'm sorta funny about makin' folks happy.......

This rifle I wasn't too happy with yet as it needed to lose a little weight.....



But I was really diggin' the forend tip....good move on my part.



Before sending the metal off for a reblue I had to make some new screws, that too was sorta a biatch as I am an amature ya know........




And a ramrod thimble......what a muther that was. Sorry it's blury, I musta been drunk......



Took a couple of other projects of mine along for show and tell, as my blueing guy/smithy pard do appreciate such things......



Here's the new blue, a 3X9 Leupy, a slightly slimmer stock and 10 coats of tru oil.......still not happy with the fit and the lines are buggin' me.......



So I slimmed and trimmed some more.....




And cleaned up a few lines....



Then set to a bunch more coats of Tru Oil and getting the checkering started.....which is where I'm at now, checkering. Here's the spacing of the forearm pattern, which by the way, ain't outta noones alcohol fogged head but my own........

I'll be sure to post pics of the finished product, which ain't too far off, given the pace I tend to keep. I was BTW, just about two and a half sheets to the wind and workin' on a picnic table by coleman lantern light when I spaced out the lines on the forearm pattern....

Things turn out pretty good for a whiskey drunk as long as I stay away from the Jose Cuervo.........





10 years of runnin' sand paper ain't dick, and, flatter yerself you thinkin' you rate high enough to give me a lesson......................

Should also add, per your remarks, Ellie Boy.....that wood stain on a gun stock, or anything else for that matter, is the mark of an amature.

Nothing like hiding the natural beauty of wood with some blotchy color pigments......

And, per your comments, steel wool on a gunstock is a mistake....unless you like rusting fragments of steel embedded in the work.