Hi Marc, Thank you for the kind words, but i would have to defer that high praise to the more knowledgable on grips, member, Hugh Clark... Hugh is the whole package from cleaning, to color, to checkering... But, having said that... What is needed to make a final decision on the grips is a picture.. a good picture because some grips were dark, and are as such, beautiful in there own right! Also, I have found in my mag bottoms manufacture, Walnut can be clasified in hundreds of shades from light orange to blood red, but when oil and time are involved, it goes right to either light or dark.. Example, once you get a walnut with any brown, red brown, or dark grain in it, and apply any stain, light or dark, particularly oil base like Danish oil, and you got dark walnut... Sapwood, or light walnut, won't accept hardly any stain, unless soaked in it, or liberal coats of leather dye, again very dark.. which results in a strange looking item, hardly what a Luger lover wants...
... Keep in mind, this is fairly dense european walnut, and most of the original patena on the wood, is from a hundred years of abuse and bad road.. but if you take it off, be ready to let another 100 years or so go by before it looks right again! Just my opinion on the little wood parts!
... Best to all, til...lat'r....GT