Comparison of different aquafortis combinations

[sleepingbulldog]

I’ve been debating what type of stain I want to use on my upcoming project, so I decided to try a few different combinations out and see how they look. I know every piece of wood will be different, but hopefully this will give an idea of what the various options look like.

The test piece is a maple practice stock from Kibler. I have used it repeatedly to practice curving and try out new ideas. In between carvings I’ve just been rasping and filing off the old carving without bothering to sand it down, so the wood surface is pretty rough.

The wood did have very nice striping and looks very comparable to the extra fancy maple I ordered in my kit.

The entire stock was coated with aquafortis, and then I added different combinations of tannic acid and lye water. The stock was blushed after adding the tannic acid but before adding lye. As a final step I rubbed in some tung oil just to get a better idea of the finished color. I’ll use a different finish on my actual rifle, tung oil was just what I had on hand.

 

[sleepingbulldog]

First pic is (from the left) 1. tannic acid & aquafortis, 2. tannic acid, aquafortis, and lye, 3. aquafortis and lye, and 4. plain aquafortis. The combination of all three is almost indistinguishable from just lye and aquafortis. You can barely make it out if you know where to look - it’s the left 1/3 of the cheek rest.

Notice that the lye turned the wood very red. The tannic acid made this particular stock very dark, even after abrading it back with a scotchbrite pad and oil.

 

[sleepingbulldog]

On this particular piece of wood, the tannic acid made the wood far too dark for my tastes, and the lye was redder than I wanted. I was hoping for something in between the lye and the plain aquafortis colors, so I hit the plain aquafortis with a couple light coats of oil with a few drops of Laurel Mountain Forge maple stain mixed in. It’s not showing all that well on the camera, but I like the result. It has a slight red hue to it, without being overwhelming. The wood appears darker than in the previous picture, but that’s just bad lighting.

I haven’t completely decided which route I will go, but at least this gives me an idea of what to expect. Hopefully this is helpful for other beginners.