Again I say , .....If you like black gunstock wood , use chemicals on wood. I listened to all the written material a half century ago , and made four longrifle stocks black. Wood can be a beautiful thing , and I admit also , it's my opinion there are other means , colored pigments , to enhance the beauty of wood w/o ruining it.
I 've always lived near lots of maple trees grew in Pa.. I built a longrifle for a retired forestry engineer near here. He owned twenty acres of woods , or so , and wanted to reward me for the rifle build with a bonus beyond monetary reward. He walked me out in his woods , and showed me an unusual maple tree with shaggy bark like that of a shag bark hickory. The neighbor's sawmill was about 300 yds. distant from the maple's stump. The shaggy bark maple was cut into 2 3/4" slabs w/ bark edges left on. The end result...The gunstocks had dark tan stripes running longitudinally with the natural grain , mixed with the curl figure some maple contains. Experimentation using application of acid , or strong base chemicals , as prescribed in some m/l building instructions back then , destroyed the natural contrast of the figure , and grain in my wood. I went back to knowledge gained from a 1965 university course in printing , when printers had to know how to mix ink pigments to enhance printing on....... PAPER.....made from tree pulp. My experiments showed , apply black pigments first to enhance any figure in the wood , then apply the desired color gained through trial on scrap wood over the black curl enhancer. Detractors demand acids and bases are historical. Yea , but so is the perminant beauty of a fine longrifle stained with controlable pigment stains. I have just about all the books in print , with color photos showing how the early 18th century masters colored their wood. From experience , many surviving guns must have been pigment stained , and not totally enhanced with black looking chemical reactions. One famous builder noted in the Fox Fire V Book studys , made his stains from used chewing tobacco. No strong chemicals there. Just shows the diversities in coloration , and how to get there. Keep an open mind kids.
