Best Way to Repair A Chipped Grip???
 

It's not a Luger grip, but the method should be the same...

My Gasser grip has a chip out of it; it chipped with the grain, pretty much in one plane...

I'm wondering how to graft a piece of wood in to repair it...

Sand/rout it flat and glue a piece on with as little glueline as possible showing??? Shape the new piece to fit the existing contour and let the glueline be what it wants to be??? Dovetail a new piece in???

What kind of adhesive??? Glue??? Epoxy??? Polyester resin???

Shaping it afterward should be pretty straightforward...and it will always look 'fixed'...so what would a period armorer/smith have done to repair it???

I've seen gunstocks with some elaborate wood repairs [Enfields]...

How would an Austrian or German have repaired a chipped grip???

I'm not sure what the Germans would do , but what I do is send my grip problems to Hugh Clark in Texas. I know for sure in can repair a Luger grip better than most.

Harry

936 5497946

hhclark@wildblue.net

I don't want to spend an amount that is half of what I bought the revolver for...as someone on Still's site suggested...and I would rather it stayed (for the most part) 'unrestored'...

I may just mix up some sawdust & resin and pour it in and belt-sand it down...or rout it flat and epoxy a piece of whatever pallet is lying around at work onto it...

"Field expedient repair" is what I am shooting for...but everyone has their own pet method for 'fixing' chips, gouges, cracks, etc...

It'll never look new and I don't want it to...I just want it to look complete...

(Read Eric's thread about finding the lost chip for his Luger carbine...it's pretty amusing, really...I'm not quite that particular...) :D

I agree with hgreer2.

I've been to Hugh's 'man cave' and seen, first-hand, many examples of his grip work. He can perform miracles. Fix a grip to where you cannot tell it was ever repaired and his prices are reasonable.

Check him out.

-ML

"I'm wondering how to graft a piece of wood in to repair it...

Sand/rout it flat and glue a piece on with as little glueline as possible showing??? Shape the new piece to fit the existing contour and let the glueline be what it wants to be??? Dovetail a new piece in???

What kind of adhesive??? Glue??? Epoxy??? Polyester resin???"

Postino,
This may be too late, you may have already repaired your grip!

Sand the grip area to be sure it is completely flat.
Sand the repair piece to be sure it is completely flat.
Be sure they will mate up with minimum to no space between the two pieces.
Be sure the grain of the wood in the two pieces runs in the same direction, and the closer they are to the same color the better.

Apply super glue to to grip, stick the repair piece on, move it around a little to spread the glue evenly onto both pieces.
Hold them together for a minute or two until the super glue dries. Wait an hour or so before sanding to shape, to allow the glue to cure completely.

Thanks for your comments! No, I haven't tried 'fixing' it yet... :rolleyes:

I established, from various pictures of excellent condition Gassers, that the 'checkering' was more like 'lining'...the checks are flat topped, not pointed, and the 'checkering' was lines cut into the grip...and the checks were double-bordered...

I could never even begin to touch up that type of checkering...So I was thinking of maybe perhaps asking you if you would be interested in giving the grips a look and seeing if you could re-trace the original 'checkering'...(and fix any chips, too)... :)

Here's a couple pics of a good condition grip to illustrate...

(BTW: Gasser grips are not symmetrical)

Hugh is your man for grips! He is a miracle worker. His work is where the rubber meets the road!

Thanks Jerry! The next pair you send me will get my special treatment!:eek:

Hugh, can I copy your posting and make it a sticky.

heh, heh, glue, adhesive, sticky, heh, heh

Stick it up there! :thumbup:

Hey! I think Hugh told me to do the same thing!

Gerry turned me on to Hugh who repaired a chip in my luger carbine grip, Perfect, can't even tell there was a repair. Super reasonalble~~

Hugh repaired my Luger grips which had two pieces of wood chipped off and recheckered them. After they came back they looked like new!
Hugh did an outstanding job! :bowdown:

I can highly recommend him :thumbup:

We luger collectors are very fortunate. We have Hugh for grip repairs, Jerry for all leather work, GT for any mag work , Luger doc for parts and advise. It doesn't get any better than these. Bill

Some of us have Charles Danner for restorations.

Harry

Got my grips back from Hugh today...Checkering/lining looks excellent; chip repair is unnoticeable... :thumbup:

I'll let you guys judge... :p

Some of us knew that in advance, Hugh is the best !!

Harry

We are lucky to have such gifted people here to help us.

Charlie

Hugh is the man for anything luger wood repair or restoration!!

Bill is absolutely right, the Luger enthusiasts living in the States are lucky: Hugh for grip repairs, Jerry for all leather work, GT for any mag work , Luger doc for parts and advise, the States are undoubtedly a big Country and the percentage of gun enthusiasts is surely higher than here in Europe, this is one of the cases in which I somehow regret not to live there...

Happy Easter to all! :)