A little dissapointed in Aqua Fortis

[Coltsmoke]

I used Auqa Fortis on my curley maple stock and I'm not real happy with the color. I put it on lightly with a wrag, got a good even coat and hit it with the heat gun. It turned a bla coco brown color. I done the baking soda deal twice and rinsed it with the water hose. While rinsing with the water hose it was a beautiful red brown. More red than brown. I now have two coats of Truoil on it and the red is gone. It is a nice golden medium brown with dark brown stripes. The grain really pops and is taking on an irredesent look. Where did the red go? I think the next time I will try Zonie's method so I can control the color.

 

[bioprof]

My experiences are similar to yours. I found that I had to dilute the AF way more than I thought I would, as much as 10:1 or more. There isn't much you can do to lighten up the stock without sanding it down again and starting over, but you can change the color somewhat by applying an alcohol stain such as LMF maple or diluted LMF cherry stain over the AF. I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of professional builders do this to get the color they want.

I have always wiped down the stock first with denatured alcohol or acetone to remove as much of the oil on the surface before applying the alcohol stain. You may have to rub it in quite a bit to get it to take.

Keep working on it. It'll come out the way you want if you keep trying.

 

[Dane]

The colors come from the amount of tannins in the wood, and the amount of iron in the AF.

I just stained a pistol today, the wood looked rather blah and was very soft. I wasn't too enthused about it, but.... it came out a beautiful red/brown, with almost black figure.

I'll post some pics in a few days when I finish putting it back together.

 

[Stophel]

Every piece of wood is different. As a GENERAL rule, sugar maple will be more orange, red maple will be more brown.

AF needs to be slopped on HEAVILY. More than once. Once you're done with all your heating, neutralize with a lye solution, rather than baking soda (again, slop it on heavily...oh, and wear rubber gloves). Not only is this more "period correct", but it changes the color to a more reddish-orange hue. Rinse the wood off thoroughly afterwards.

:wink:

 

[Coltsmoke]

Seems like to me the more AF used would cause the wood to be darker. What causes the red orange color the lye solution?

 

[Stophel]

Aqua fortis is a "colorant" rather than a "stain". You can apply AF 30 times and still not have it any darker than you did at application number 3. Now, you do want to apply it 2 or 3 times just to make sure that you have good coverage and good absorption. I usually end up staining a stock maybe a half dozen times or more. I always find a spot somewhere on the stock that needs attention after I stain, so, I fix it and have to stain again...then I find another spot...

After neutralizing, you might have a pretty hard time getting it to stain again, so, make sure all is OK before neutralizing.

Someone may be able to tell you just what goes on during the chemical reaction, but I ain't him. I'm an alchemist, not a chemist. :wink:

My last gun stained with AF I made myself (stained who knows how many times), neutralized with lye and rinsed off. Grain filled with buttonlac (and a bit of mastic) with an oil varnish (also made by myself) as a top coat. www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/Flintlocks/1760

 

[bioprof]

One observation that I have made with my limited experience is that any part of the stock that hasn't been sanded as much generally ends up darker with AF. Burnishing the stock before applying AF might help to prevent this. I've never had a problem with the stock not taking the stain with AF.

I think the other comments about the type of wood are right on target.

 

[Coltsmoke]

I now have it looking a lot better. I sanded it down, I probally got half of the color out of it. I went to Highland Hardware( man what a store) and bought some alcohol and a product called TransTint. You can mix your own alcohol stain. The neat thing was they have curly maple samples stained with each color. I used #6003 reddish brown, it was a great improvement. It is a little darker than I would have aimed for, but I'm happy. It really looks like an old stock.

I think the next build I'll use the Lye treatment and this TransTint mix in alchol. They had all the colors you could possibly want. O.K. on with the Truoil.

 

[William Joy]

Trans tint - the best stuff available ! Can even use it in varnish, epoxy,....