UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons Army, Navy, and Luftwaffe Forum Two tone grips

I have come across a few of these now and although many collectors put this anomaly down to dirt or handling wear I am not so sure.
Houston had a post in the past on a Kolping showing the same traits KOLPING but on the grip shown below you can clearly see tooling marks as if the darkening was intentional.
This is not dirt and I am interested to hear opinions as to how this was achieved or the reasoning for how exposure could be the culprit?. This grip is off a scarce pattern Holler.

If it was machined from solid trolon it could be tool chatter marks the creation of which might have caused heat changing the colour of the trolon in the process

If you look closely you can that where there is a chip in this grip it shows the same colour as the lighter parts, This grip would have started out life as an even coloured off white/white, the turn to orange is well documented, but the darker parts are harder to explain, you could say it was just muck, but its very even throughout the grip, could be a more technical explanation as per AJ's answer, in any event it looks good and I certainly wouldn't advise touching it in any way.

Nolan

Definately not muck with those striation marks and tool chatter sounds like a good explanation.
We know the grips darken over time and even daggers with a heavy crud in the recesses tend to stay a pretty uniform colour with the rest of the outer segments.
Intentional........probably not and at the moment AJ's description of excessive heat in the milling of the recess's possibly causing the trolon to react differently to light seems plausible!.

I’m going to propose a possible alternate explanation: If a grip had aged to an orange/darker color. And the more exposed high points of the grip at some point were polished clean of the aged layer, the grooves which would still remain darker. With the chip likewise (as a more freshly exposed surface) also changing at first to a yellow as the grip aged. FP

Fred, how would you account for the tool chatter or stepped transition between the two colours, surely if the upper segments had been polished you could expect to see a smooth or defined border.
It certainly is a strange one and I may investigate that chip a little closer tomorrow if I can find the time.

Looking at the images - my best guess is that if a polishing agent. Such as crocus cloth which has a backing was used. It would contact and remove the aged outside layers of the high spots. And miss the depressed portions (the “chatter” marks) leaving them relatively intact along with the grooves. Best Regards, FP.

I would guess that some of the reason that the grooves are are filled with scuzz .

1. the grooves may have more remaining tool marks and this would retain more particulate matter (scuzz).
2. The whole grip attracted scuzz
3. Scuzz (my definition) is dust/crud sticking to sweat, humidity, spilled beer, and whatever settled on the grip.
4 Since the grip was gripped fairly often () and it was a relatively smooth trolon/plastic, in the upper parts, the scuzz was worn off from the surface while remaining in the grooves.

Apologies for lame humor here.

I would think that an old soft toothbrush with a mild cleaner would show a uniform colored grip.

Dave