I agree, several of the grips produced for SA daggers, were initially light and varnished or stained to give them a darker look. Depending how this finish held up over time, would result on whether a collector left it intact, or removed the remainder to even out the color. I'm sure that the color of the SA uniform played a big part in this. You can even see this in SS grips that have turned significantly lighter brown over time where once they were more black.