Aqua Fortis / Bone Black

[Reno]

Varnish was the original type finish

 

[Siringo]

Two coats of aqua fortis will be plenty dark. Try inside barrel channel.

M qm

 

[Flintandsteel]

Linseed oil with driers in it, becomes varnish. Plain boiled linseed oil is not.
Linspeed, and Tru-oil, etc., are linseed oil based varnish.

 

[Rifleman1776]

tung oil is best.

Agree. I used pure Tung on an ml more than 40 years ago. Held up well all this time. It is very moisture resistant.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Linseed oil as a base and then we can argue forever about what goes over it. The old timers used spar varnish or church pew varnish or something similar. I use some sort of polyurethane myself. It's all in how you apply it to get a good traditional looking finish.

 

[Two Feathers]

I use Tried and True polymerized linseed oil with Bees wax on my knife handles. Works great!
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[frankie]

This may be a stupid question but I'm asking anyway. Can I mix a bit of Bone Black with Aqua Fortis to get a darker finish? I am in the process of building a Kibler SMR and purchased the Bone Black to use as a stain for the maple but I am thinking it may be too dark. I will be using Tru Oil for the final coat. Thanks for any input and suggestions.

Linseed oil is not very water resistant. I use tung oil.

 

[Tn poor boy]

Other thing you can use besides boneblack would be a wine cork.burn it then rub it where you want dark color

 

[Redlemur60]

I finished this Kibler with AF and blushed, followed by tannic acid. With the tannic acid you can rub back as little or as much as you want. Rubbing it back less will leave a darker/grimier looking finish. I tried using bone black also and preferred the tannic acid as it seemed to give me more control. After this, I finished it with three coats of Tried & True. Whole process took a few days, mostly because of the 24 hour dry time recommended for the T&T. Actual work time was probably less than 6 hours on the actual finish.
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Tanic first , let dry. Then kiblersIRON NITRATE. And thats not the same as af.( its im sure propriatary) its buffered for a rosey er-ish color.And when blushed it stops burning so you need not neutralize and it wont green over time and i dont like tru oil
Or blo or too shiny guns go wirh the tried and tru or permalyn but cut in half with turp wipe clean 1 coat a day until your happy!and of course the are my experiences yours may vary!