I just finished cutting new pistol grips and was wondering what to use for the best clear coat protection.
Thanks,Brad

I would use satin poly if you want to keep the finish as near to the natural wood as possible, although it will darken it some. If you want the standard of the industry it's Tru Oil, although it has an amber cast to it. IMO it makes the best finish for a rifle stock or pistol grip, if you apply it correctly.

What type of wood did you use, and was it dried/cured or did you cut it from a tree/log?

There isn't a right answer for this question, and depending on what type of sheen you want, you could go a lot of different directions. The easiest thing would be to wipe on a lot of coats of a drying oil like Danish Oil/Tung Oil, Boiled linseed oil or even something like Birchwood Casey Tru Oil. Wipe on a few coats, let it dry, repeat a bunch of times.

If you wanted a slick, smooth as glass finish for presentation grade, there are a lot of steps.

Here is my recommendation.

Sand the wood to 400 grit. Blow/wipe off all the sanding dust. Wipe on a coat of drying oil like mentioned above. But wipe it on with a brown paper sack, and rub it smooth and almost dry. Let it sit and dry, repeat 3x a day for about 3 days.


Generally speaking, oil based polyurethane you buy in the store for cabinets is not UV resistant and will yellow and fall apart exposed to sunlight or moisture. Firearms manufacturers use a polyester finish which was designed for automotive finishes and it is super tough but not available in the hardware finish section. Then there are lacquers, shellacs, enamels, and mixtures and waterbased and solvent based versions of all. It can get confusing quick. In reality, you probably wouldn't notice much difference between any of them if you don't expose them to the elements.

It's Leopard wood. Still have to shape and sand. I haven't decided if I want a glossy look or not.

With that figured wood, I would recommend using a polymerized finish ( like Tru Oil) because it will bring out the Chatoyancy of the figure in the and make it "pop" much more and look more 3-D. You can do a satin or gloss finish with Tru Oil.

I use a base coat of Tru Oil on my guitar builds when using figured wood

Nice job refurbishing that old Spanish pistol.

Thanks, this is my first attempt.

Wow! That is a work of art. Very impressive.

You're a pretty talented fellow, Colt.

That leopard wood looks great on that pistol.

That guitar is beautiful!

I have fallen in love with the Deft semi gloss acrylic (aresol) and the Zissner shellac (aresol).

A formula that I use often is four parts Tru-Oil to one part Minwax mahogany stain applied in two coats, followed by straight Tru-Oil thereafter. The little bit of red makes a difference without over-doing it.

Tru-Oil has worked so well for me over the years that I haven't bought a can of linseed oil or tung oil in quite a while.

I put on a light coat, let it sit at least 24 hours, then sand or steel wool as required before the next coat. Once it has lost its tack, I generally move the piece outside so the low humidity and desert sun can do it's work. - An alternative would be a cardboard box oven with two 40 watt incandescent bulbs inside, for moderate heat.

The same El-Cheapo 'oven' is also useful for epoxy finishes - but that's another story.

As a note - putting most woodworking finishes in direct sunlight while they are curing/drying will cause them to bubble. Oils typically do not do this

I don't put them outside until the tack is gone, figuring that it would be a dust and insect magnet if it were still sticky at all. With my luck, that would be when the neighbor finally decided to mow his lawn.

I wonder if it would bubble up on me if I put one out there wet? I guess it would be a good idea to give it a try on a piece of scrap, see how it behaves. At 4500 feet, direct sunlight is pretty stout stuff.