FEG Factory Wood Grip Panels Refinishing?

[tpelle]

I have an FEG Counterfeit FN that was wearing a set of FN Military Black Plastic grip panels.  I was becoming a little weary of the drab gray/black look overall so I purchased a set of FEG factory wood grips.  They arrived yesterday and I fitted them.  Here's a picture with the FN plastic grips:

Here's the FEG factory grips:

I have to say that I am not thrilled with the yellow look, but I figure that I can stain them to be a bit darker.

Anyone have an idea of what sort of wood these things were made from?  (Somewhere I seem to recall that they were supposed to be "European Walnut", but I suspect that, when translated from Hungarian, that means Beech.)

They appear to have some sort of varnish on them which would have to be stripped.  I recently refinished a set of Yugoslavian M70 wood fore end and hand guards which looked to be a similar shade, and I used a dark wood stain left over from another project that was appropriately labeled "Gunstock", which, on my bead board ceiling, came out a beautiful dark brown.  But on the Yugo wood they came out yellow.

Anybody have any suggestions regarding a way to get a nice dark brown walnut look on these "school bus" grips?

[Bob Reed]

Hello,

Assuming the L.H. panel is as nice as the right; you have acquired a really nice set of 'blond' grips. So, to avoid the risk of damaging the nice sharp checkering during stripping, I'd personally leave them alone and just get a set of dark walnut.

BTW: If looking for a nice 'red' stain for AKs, etc., we've been using MINWAX POLYSHADES - SATIN - BOMBAY MAHOGANY and it is a nice, deep/dark red that brings out the grain. The polyurethane mix is nice for those that want a one-step stain & seal, but we still clear coat (spray type) the parts after staining.

Good Luck,

[tpelle]

Thanks for the reply. Actually the left grip checkering area is a little deeper and sharper than the right. And the more I look at them the more used to the blonde wood my eyes get. Your encouragement may have just pushed me over the top towards leaving them as-is. I can foresee, though, switching back to the black plastic, as according to Beczl's data sheets the phosphated pistols had the black plastic while the blued ones had the wood. Of course I did change the safety, as the original "small button" safety was very mushy in its operation so I changed it for the late ambi safety, which I converted it to be single-sided.

I have no idea what finish this one left the factory with, nor have I ever seen pictures of the FEG Parkerized finish. I do know that this pistol did receive a bit of minor damage, as there is a slight indention in the very bottom front of the recoil spring housing of the slide, and there is also a slight chip that was spalled off of the notch in the slide where the hook of the original safety engages in that notch. (It appears that the pistol may have been in someone's hand when it was jammed into a hard surface, and the slide was then pushed sharply backwards into the engaged safety.) Both points of damage, which would likely have exposed bright steel, were then phosphated-over at a later date. Since then the parkerizing did not show any wear at all, so I presume that after it was refurbed by the Israelis it went into storage, and eventually was sold to Cole's Distributing in a bunch of FN Hi Powers.

By the way, when I got the pistol I detail-stripped it to change some springs and a few other small parts, and I got maybe a half-thimblefull of sand from the firing pin channel and the tunnel where the magazine disconnector lived. I thought that was kind of cool!

It would be nice to know the full background story of this pistol, but it will never happen.

[Bob Reed]

Thanks for the history. Seriously though, your HP looks really nice & ready for business with the blond stocks. I wish all the old HPs could talk and tell us where they've been and what they've seen!