Chemicals for the GPR

[Spot Shooter]

Ok guy's,

I want to order my stain, and oils, and browning agent, along with a new front site.

at TOTW I'm thinking about using acetone to degrease, then

Luarel Mountain forge Browning & Degreaser

I liked Kevin's finsih so I was thinking about getting the Tru-oil and casey's walnut stain. The don't carry Linseed oil.

- Tip's recommendations ? ? ?

Thanks,
Spot

 

[roundball]

Just a thought about using stain...I've refinished a few TC Hawken stocks now using Tru-Oil and it's great...but I learned to just use it be itself.

The first stock I refinished I applied stain, then coats of Tru-Oil and immediately realized it was too dark overall, lost sight of the pretty grain, highlights, etc.

Every one since then I only use Tru-Oil which darkens the wood enough just by itself...and by not being too dark, the pretty light & dark figure, grain variations, and highlights remain much more highly visible and attractive.

So my suggestion would be to really re-think using stain and then also using Tru-Oil if the wood is pretty and you want it to really show

 

[RJR]

On the walnut stocks I have refinished I like to sand to 320 then apply a golden oak stain. The golden oak absorbs into the more pourus grain and darkens these areas slightly leaving the dense grain light. Really offsets the grain nicely and glows after the Truoil finish is applied. The more Truoil the deeper the glow. Good luck with it. Take care, Rick.

 

[Zonie]

Spotshooter: You may want to stain your wood, and your choice of Birchwood Caseys brand is IMO a good one. It is a water base stain so you can delute it some and sneak up on the darkness you want BUT BEFORE YOU STAIN THE WOOD, do as I have posted before and wait for a sunny day. Then get a damp sponge or rag and take your finish sanded but unstained stock outside. Wet it all over and take a good look at it.
What your seeing is the color it will be after you apply the Trueoil. If it is dark enough to suit you then don't stain it.
Walnut is a "Open pore" wood and drinks up stain fast. That means, it gets "too dark" real fast making it almost black.
I think Kevins stock looks like he didn't stain it at all (but I may be wrong about that. We will have to see what he has to say).

 

[hardykev]

Roundball,

Were the stocks you finished your TC stocks? If so, I would agree that you don't want to stain them. When my TC comes back, it will be stripped and finished w/o stain.

So far as the GPR stocks are concerned, they need staining. They are far too light. My stock was stained with Casey's. The good thing about Casey's stain is it does not hide much grain.

I will be honest about my stock though, since the pictures were taken, it has been completely stripped and re-stained as it was too light. The picture is much darker than it was holding it. The present stain looks (in person) as dark as the photo shows.

I would pick up a 1" spong brush at the local home depot or such along with your can of linseed oil. It will be found in the finishes aisle along with stains, varnishes and thinners. The can will last forever. Be careful what you are wearing while using it as it will soak in and then set up. Pretty hard to get washed out then.

While it isn't a chemical, you may pick up a 1/2" dowel while you are there to rig up a browning stand for the barrel.

 

[hardykev]

oops, posting twitch.

 

[Spot Shooter]

Guy's,

I decided to go with Plum Browning, and Tru-oil. I have some nice stain's I think I'm going to try the gold walnut stain, and see what it looks like.

Kit and chemicals will be here next week!

Thanks for all the help!

Spot

 

[hardykev]

Unless you are dead set on the stain, I would test it and the BC walnut to compare. On your brown barrel, the brown of the Casey's might look more accurate/better.

Just a personal opinion. I tried a few other stains before settling on the Casey's. Whatever stain you decide upon, water based stain is suggested.

Oh, and make sure you buy boiled linseed oil, not regular. Boiled linseed will eventually dry, non-boiled will not.

 

[Zonie]

WARNING: Do not use OIL BASED STAINS on your stocks.
To me, these have two major drawbacks.
First, they will mask or cover the beautiful grain even the plainest walnut has.
Second, they are much too "strong" meaning, the first coat stains the wood as much as the stain is capable of staining it. More coats do not add more color. What you see is what you get and getting it off is a PITA because its oileyness "loads" the sandpaper badly (read you will use LOTS of sandpaper).

If you use Birchwood Caseys water based stains even on walnut stocks, you might want to try their "Maple" stain. It builds up slower than the "Walnut" stain and gives a little Redder color. An even Redder color can be obtained with their "Colonial Brown" stain.

 

[tg]

Spot, you may be able to find some scraps of walnut wood at a cabinet shop or lumber yard close to your stock in color to test things on, good luck and good luck also in sorting through the wheat and the chaff about projectiles, nipples and caps and such....there is an abundance of chaff around at times.

 

[roundball]

Zonie, FYI...I think BC discontinued their Colonial Brown stain

 

[Zonie]

Roundball: You may be right. I haven't seen it for a while either, but if someone out there reading this comes across a bottle or two sitting on a shelf and wonders what it looks like maybe this will help them, or maybe they can call me and tell me where it is.

I also realize there are several other very good brands of stains available such as Laurel Mountain Forge, Classic Spirit Stain and Muzzleloaders Builders Supply (who has their own product called "Color Rich Stain", the literature says it produces a redish color). The first two of these are rather pricey and I have not used any of them so I cannot say how well they work.

I have also used "Magic Maple Stain" from Wolftrap Armory in Vienna, Va.. This is made "...for Curly Maple..." and it instantly "bit" into the wood and Darkened it a lot more than I wanted. I ended resanding the stock.

To those of you who read about old timers using Chromium Trioxide and want to try it, there are a lot of "do's and don'ts" that go along with using it. Read as much as you can about it before trying it or you may have a minor disaster.

Aquafortis Reagent is another old time solution made mainly with nitric acid and iron. After applying to Maple you heat the wood to darken it.
I personally have had very poor luck using this to get the color I was after. It has a mind all its own and not done correctly it can turn your stock black or green.

 

[roundball]

Any idea what the average gunbuilder did way back when? Wonder if they stained stocks with stain as we think of it or if they just oiled them?

 

[Deadeye]

They used aquafortis on maple but believe they just used oil on the walnut. American walnut usually doesn't need stain except to match some lighter colored sapwood. Some European walnut is a light tan color and a stain will bring out the grain. I recently refinished a Pedersoli double that the wood was about the color of the page surrounding this message with no grain showing.
After staining it has a beautiful grain. I use a brown stain from Wampler chemical co. in N. Carolina.
Deadeye

 

[hardykev]

Odd how varied the European/Italian woods can be.

I have an IAB Sharps, the GPR and a Pedersoli double shotgun and the first two are light as light can be, requiring stain. The Pedersoli wood is so dark that with just using oil it is as dark as the stained GPR.

Funny.