Aqua Fortis

[Gtrubicon]

Have any of you ever used Aqua Fortis on a Beech Cva stock? I have a CVA mountain pistol I’m working on and was wondering how it might look? The stock is new raw wood.

 

[wiscoaster]

Have used it only on maple. If you proceed, let us know how it works on your beech.

 

[OldRust]

I have tried it on European beech with very poor results. But that's just me, other's may have had different results. I've always used the alcohol based Fiebings leather dye on beech stocks with very good results.

Thanks
O.R.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

An old CVA pistol I rescued from the junk Cabinet a couple months ago. An old blanket prize that someone screwed up that I fixed. Has 2 coats of Aqua Fortis with a boiled Linseed oil and turpentine mix for a finish. The stripes are Fake.

 

[Gtrubicon]

An old CVA pistol I rescued from the junk Cabinet a couple months ago. An old blanket prize that someone screwed up that I fixed. Has 2 coats of Aqua Fortis with a boiled Linseed oil and turpentine mix for a finish. The stripes are Fake.

That looks really good! What technique did you use for the stripes?

 

[ronaldrothb49]

That looks really good! What technique did you use for the stripes?

This was an experiment for the rifle I am currently working on which has a totally plain maple stock. I tried several different things, Potassium Permanganate, Frieberg Leather Dye, India Ink, etc. all of which I rejected for various reasons. I used Angelus black Leather dye, it is alcohol based so it dries quickly and actually penetrates the wood and doesn't bleed like water based Frieberg. Used different sizes of cheap artist's brushes to paint it onto the bare wood and made sure there was no pattern to it. I then applied the Aqua Fortis and blushed it. When i do the rifle stock I am going to use wider stripes with narrower spaces between them, I think that will look better. Going to do some more test strips from the actual rifle stock to make sure how I will do it.

 

[MAC1967]

I recently reworked a Jukar with a beech stock. I used Feibing's Leather Dye . . .Chocolate or dark brown I think. It worked very well. I tried to faux stripe it, but didn't do as nice of a job as the one pictured above with painted stripes. Instead, I wrapped it in wire and burnt it with a propane torch. It worked ok, BUT the wood is so soft that the wire wrap dented the stock, which still bugs me. . . but I think it is much improved from what I started with. (Worked the lock panels a bit and thinned the chunky-ness down some. I'm a novice builder at best.)

 

[Gtrubicon]

I really like that stain color.

 

[Gtrubicon]

I just looked looked on Amazon for Feiblings dye, the have it but it says it can’t be shipped to my location? Weird.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

I recently reworked a Jukar with a beech stock. I used Feibing's Leather Dye . . .Chocolate or dark brown I think. It worked very well. I tried to faux stripe it, but didn't do as nice of a job as the one pictured above with painted stripes. Instead, I wrapped it in wire and burnt it with a propane torch. It worked ok, BUT the wood is so soft that the wire wrap dented the stock, which still bugs me. . . but I think it is much improved from what I started with. (Worked the lock panels a bit and thinned the chunky-ness down some. I'm a novice builder at best.)

I have seen a number of guns over the years that people have artificially striped with a blow torch. I have to say yours is the best looking one I have ever seen. I would make one suggestion. The picture is of an actual curly maple pistol stock. Look at how the grain runs through the handle on it.

 

[MAC1967]

Thank you RonaldRoth . . . I have kind of a love-hate relationship with that pistol, the more I look at it sometmes, the less I like it . . . but then I try to remember what it looked like when it was given to me, and say it is much better than it was. It is hard unless you are a good builder to make a "purse out of a sows ear." I know enough to know what a good maple pistol looks like, (Jim Chamber's pistol comes to mind) and mine isn't close. I wouldn't torch a piece of maple. I just thought with this I had little to lose trying it.
I have a TVM Lancaster and a Chambers Fowler I've built that are both curly maple and it's not the same. This is my only KY pistol. But something I learned very quickly as one who has been into ML's only about 12 years . . . 99.9% of my friends who are avid modern shooters and gun guys whom I show my ML's to, don't know a Lancaster from a Jeager. I start saying little things about them and they don't often know what I'm talking about.

 

[MAC1967]

I've bought Feibings off of Ebay before.

 

[MAC1967]

Opps I double posted. Just erased not knowing how to delete.

 

[SDSmlf]

Have any of you ever used Aqua Fortis on a Beech Cva stock?

You will not know until you try it on your specific piece of stock wood.

I have tried Aquafortis on an inexpensive Spanish blunderbuss’s stock and got a ‘unique’ final result, though nothing spectacular. No before photograph, but it was your typical plain monotone look before I stripped it and applied the Aquafortis, followed with a pure tung oil finish. No idea as to actual wood type, guess you could call it grade 1 European pallet wood.