Worm holes in grips?!!
 

Today I picked up a St. Etienne .25 Auto, circa 1920.
To my suprise, the bakelite (or other synthetic) grips have what appear to be large worm holes in them!
Anybody ever heard of this?
I've never seen anything like it.

Horn grips will sometimes have worm holes. It frequently shows up on old rifle horn butt plates also.

Ron,
Acccording to the books I have on hand, the grips are ebonite... ?

If your grips are actually ebonite, which I think is a type of hard rubber, I have no idea what caused the holes...worms don't eat ebonite. The only other holes in grips I have seen are air holes in cast repros.

Exactly. These are without doubt the original grips and the "eaten" appearance is unmistakeable.
Pretty strange, huh!?

(This is yet another case by the way where the guy who had it thought the bore was ruined. I ran a brush through it and bought it immediately.)

Could the "worm holes" be holes caused by air bubbles coming up to the surface while the grip material was cooling in its mold ?

Pete,

Sorry I didn't answer sooner. Just got out of the hospital. Went in on Thurs. and damn near came out feet first.

If you've ever seen worm holes in wood, you'll always recognize it. These are worm holes for sure.

I'm glad you didn't come out with your feets first, and wish you all the best in your recovery David!

I didn't find worm holes in a pair of grips today, but found out they where rotten.. I was cleaning them, and soaked them in water for about 20min. But when I started brushing them with an old soft toothbrush, they simply fell apart in small pieces. So be carefull when cleaning old grips guys! Soaking them is probably not a good idea..