What Stain for Tiger Maple?

M. De Land said:

In thinking about the color on original guns we can observe and copy today I wonder if they are not considerably darker from age than they were when built.

Click to expand...

ekettenburg said:

Probably 99% of original guns you're looking at today have been refinished multiple times. There are very few of the 18th century that can actually be utilized as a good example of original finish, and even up through the 1820s-30s period, the vast majority have been refinished. In the case of those that do retain original finish, one has to speculate as to what the effect of 200+ years may have had on any stain or finish material that is still present.

RCA #42 is a spectacular example of an original finish rifle, clearly an aquafortis stain under a thin, hard oil varnish that has a slight red tint with some unknown material (I suspect a resin). The 'ghost' Peter Resor rifle is another fairly early piece that does not appear to have been ever refinned, and that's on the opposite side of the spectrum: it was clearly a very light stain, if any, under an oil finish that has darkened with time and oxidation.

There are a couple of signed John Moll rifles that retain good proportions of original finish, and it's clear that he was obtaining a good amount of color in a hard varnish, probably a copal resin varnish. Of the two that I think about most often, one is a really warm orange-amber, almost all in the varnish, and the other is a good dark 'burnt'red, also mostly in the varnish.

There's a lot to be said for Wallace Gusler's approach in not staining an extensively-carved rifle but rather hitting it with a few coats of a sealer and/or finish that is oil based and has color all it's own. Very fast, efficient, and doesn't bugger the carving that you just put so much work into!

Click to expand...

ekettenburg said:

...or you can use ammonia to lighten and add more red/gold to the color *after heat blushing.*

A stock stained with homemade stain is also going to react more with most commercial linseed oil as there are fatty acids present that will react with the acidity of the stain unless it's been neutralized with ammonia or lye. Have to be very careful if using lye solution and linseed oil, too much lye and the oil will start to get cloudy and patchy white usually in high humidity.

Click to expand...