An Early 1900 American Eagle

[CAP Black]

I will add a comment about the cleaning of those old grips with toothbrushes, even soft ones. Be careful that getting them soaking wet will soften them and you could scrub off the diamonds. I use a soft one inch paint brush. and thus not as much scrubbing force occurs.
Jack

[AR-50A1]

Hi Jack,

Thank you for your comment.

The technique I use does not involve a lot of 'hard contact' with the checkering. Should the grip panels appear to be soft or 'punky' in consistency I don't clean them at all for the reason you mention.

I have learned that most Luger wood grip panels were made from Beech or Walnut. The grip panels on my 1900 are Beech as quarter-sawn Beech exhibits gold flecking highlights when rotated in sunlight (as these grip panels do).

Thank you for your comments.

Bill

[4 Scale]

Originally Posted by CAP Black

I will add a comment about the cleaning of those old grips with toothbrushes, even soft ones. Be careful that getting them soaking wet will soften them and you could scrub off the diamonds. I use a soft one inch paint brush. and thus not as much scrubbing force occurs.
Jack

I also use a short, fine brush for the reasons you mention. Also in inspecting Luger grips and tooth brush bristles under a microscope, most of the grime in the grips is at the base of the checkering grooves; bristles on a toothbrush are too thick to reach the bottom of the grooves.