I don't get it with Pietta and their stains. Some of them wash off with alcohol and some won't.
I have three Pietta 1851 Navy .36 type pistols with three different types of wood.
While I admire Hawg for his expertise insofar as these pistols are concerned, I have to disagree with some of his opinions. I believe that he thinks that the backstrap, trigger guard, and wood are finished as one unit per pistol. In this day of CNC machining, that cannot be the case, IMO.
The first pistol was ordered from Cabela's as a Pietta 1851 Navy .36 with a round trigger guard, and I ordered a Pietta squareback TG from Taylor's and bought a nicely figured (IMO) hardwood grip with the red stain on Ebay.
I am sure you will notice that it is one of the last "tail" pistols produced.
The original grip wood an
ugly quarter-sawed piece.
As you can see, they all fit pretty well.
(Date code [CM] 2014).
The next pistol is a Pietta G&G .36 with quarter-sawed wood (straight grain).
(Date code [CN] 2015)
The last pistol is a Pietta 1851 Navy Third Model (small round TG) with flat-sawed wood.
(Date code [CP] 2016)
I guess Pietta uses what wood they have on hand.
All of these pistols have had at least 2 coats of Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil, with a minimum of one week drying time before an application of #0000 steel wool between coats. After that, nothing bleeds through, and the finish is very hard.