Cherry wood stock finish options

[ike]

I just purchased a rifle with a Cherrywood stock. I will get the rifle in May, I have finished a few stocks but none in Cherrywood. I searched the forums but did not find any thoughts on possible finishes. Looking for your options for stain or aqua fortis or something else. Please post pictures of your finishes. Thanks to the help.

 

[Dave Marsh]

I am getting ready to test some cherry stain in my cherry stock barrel channel. Following is what I have taken out of posts so far. Have not tried yet but this is what I will be experimenting with.

CHERRY WOOD FINISH
I got some red devil lye but some drain cleaners work as well. I went by guess and by golly, 4 tablespoons (the measuring kind) in an 8-ounce jar. It heats up when dissolving. That’s my full-strength solution. I try that on a scrap. If too reddish I dilute 1-part full strength to 2 parts water. I wipe it on with a sopping wet cloth (using vinyl gloves). Don’t spare the sauce. It will look ugly but fear not. Dry overnight then blush with a heat gun just like AQF. Depending on wood and strength you get somewhere between warm brown to reddish brown to saturated red (more lye = more reddish). I wash with water once rubbing vigorously with a dipping cloth. Then again with vinegar then water again. After that I dry 2 days before raising the grain etc. the results can easily be varied. Here’s a New England fowler with the buttstock repaired by piecing in 2 pieces of cherry. I made the back story up, that the buttstock was shattered by a British musket ball while I was reloading at Breed’s Hill. In reality, the blank had a couple soft/punky spots that were revealed only after the barrel and lock were inletted and I’d started shaping the buttstock.
1/2 teaspoon lye 1/2 pint water. Neutralize vinegar water
I'm a big fan of cherry and like it best unstained, but when an immediate slight darkening is desired, I use Easy-Off oven cleaner. As Rich mentioned, not all oven cleaner has lye in it; the Easy-Off that comes in a yellow can does and the label says "DANGER: CORROSIVE. CONTAINS SODIUM HYDROXIDE (LYE)."

My technique is to spray some in a plastic dish then add water to make it ~10:1 ratio -- very diluted, allowing me to control the darkening with repeated wiped on applications.

The cherry hit with full-strength Easy-Off sprayed directly on the stock. The picture frame is three wiped-on applications of the 10:1 diluted solution... darkened it just a bit without "disrespecting" the natural beauty of cherry. Both are finished with tung oil.

 

[64Springer]

Search for Cherry and Lye and a million threads will pop up.

 

[ord sgt]

My first rifle build, I tried cherry. I had no point of references at the time (40 years ago) and only had some woodworking finishes on hand. I used Minwax cherry finish on the stock with boiled linseed oil rubbed in.

 

[rich pierce]

Aquafortis turns cherry black.

 

[Robin Henderson]

It will darken with age over time but to speed up the process I've used the cheap Dollar General store spray variety that contains lye.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Cherry is a tricky wood that is prone to "splotching", due to the variable permeability of the grain. That is most evident when it comes to using stains on it. Many other woods are that way too. (Pine seems to be the worst.) That makes for many headaches for furniture makers.

When I've made cherry furniture, I've used a dilute mixture of hide glue (that stuff really stinks) and water sprayed over it to seal things. You can also use a very dilute mixture of lacquer to do the same thing, but beware; if it is too concentrated, it will seal the wood and prevent the next stain layer from being absorbed at all--splotching in reverse. For that reason I typically try to avoid staining cherry and go with the traditional lye / water treatment when working in it. Light also darkens cherry (and many other woods) over time.

There are a zillion forums and articles out there on the various wood working sites for much greater information, but remember, each piece of wood is a little bit different, and your mileage will vary, so experimentation on your actual piece of wood (I suggest the adjacent scrap from the sides of the barrel, or, if that isn't available, in the barrel channel--someplace that won't show on the finished piece) is a prudent (and I think fun) thing to do.