Vertical Foregrip Removal

I'm not a fan of vertical foregrips, especially ones with what appear to be notches carved in them. No matter how much a foregrip may dismay the more histrionic and censorious anti-gun types, the ergonomics just don't agree with me any more than wood agrees with a bandsaw like the one I used to chop off the VFG.

The most unkindest cut of all.

Unfortunately, disaster struck! I made the ultimate woodworking error of erring on the side of cutting too much off and let the bandsaw bite into the forward part of the grip below the original level of the wood. Such gross misjudgement had left the lower handguard mutilated, its subtle curves and aesthetics forever altered beyond repair. I also accidentally cut off two fingers on my right hand, but that's not important.

Was the grip salvageable? Could it be made to look as if I intended to cut that deep? It would be interesting to see whether or not woodworking was susceptible to hasty, after-the-fact obfuscation of incompetence, as so many other fields are.

I wasn't actually too worried. The handguard required reshaping anyway, so a little bit of creativity around the front part wouldn't be an issue.

Rough shaping was performed with a rasp, as even the coarsest sandpaper would have taken forever. There is nothing particularly scientific about the process of reshaping: Just make light strokes from the flat to the rounded part and eyeball it to produce something resembling symmetry. Also, if possible, avoid using the rasp on your knuckles. Totally not speaking from experience here.

The excessive cut near the front of the handguard was surprisingly easy to blend into its surroundings with a spokeshave, and soon things had taken shape to the point that I switched over to 100-grit sandpaper.

This was where the last sharp edges were finally blended into their surroundings. You can see the process starting here...

...and reaching completion here. The final results were better than I expected, lending a sporty flare to the end of the handguard and functioning as a secure finger notch.

As with the other bits of wood, I used finer grades of sandpaper to achieve a consistent finish.

Everything up to this point had been in preparation for the next step, staining and finishing. Would this work be justified by an attractive and contratactical product? It would take me several more days to find out, but you can just click the link for the next page.