Dark red finishes

[Texas Gil]

Good evening, folks.

I’m finishing up my 2nd Kibler colonial. It’s a .58 smoothie, mainly a turkey and small game/upland gun, but I’m sure I’ll dabble in a few deer hunts as well. The barrel is currently being jug choked and I just finished up aging the parts. Essentially, it’s ready to go outside of the barrel.

I have a vision of patinated hardware with a DARK red curly maple stock. The curl in this stock is exquisite. I’m having troubles reaching the red color I want, though. Have been working with tannic acid, iron nitrate, cherry LMF, and Tru oil in the barrel channel in certain segments to test without avail (yes, I will neutralize the channel when I’m done to prevent corrosion).

Does anyone have any suggestions or examples?

Love dark red stocks. I’m doing a trade gun stock finish now. Got my color with Friebrings leather dye, dark brown , black and mahogany mixed with alcohol. The mahogany made for a very rich color red. Equal stain to alcohol. Go slow test the combo !

 

[akroguy]

That’s a gorgeous red. I actually tried just a little maple and got a brown result. Must be a different maple stock

I used LMF cherry stain added to tried and true varnish oil. Thus went over blushed Aqua fortis. The stain/oil mixture looks like blood. Some of the stain can be rubbed on straight between oil applications to redden it up more if desired.

 

[Hatman/2nd line]

I u,sed Tinnit dyes scarlet red and oak brown to get this color. Just a pinch is all that is needed with water, very potent!

 

[Century to late]

Good evening, folks.

I’m finishing up my 2nd Kibler colonial. It’s a .58 smoothie, mainly a turkey and small game/upland gun, but I’m sure I’ll dabble in a few deer hunts as well. The barrel is currently being jug choked and I just finished up aging the parts. Essentially, it’s ready to go outside of the barrel.

I have a vision of patinated hardware with a DARK red curly maple stock. The curl in this stock is exquisite. I’m having troubles reaching the red color I want, though. Have been working with tannic acid, iron nitrate, cherry LMF, and Tru oil in the barrel channel in certain segments to test without avail (yes, I will neutralize the channel when I’m done to prevent corrosion).

Does anyone have any suggestions or examples?

Yes Trans tint best way to go. Can be mixed into anything. Just remember red fades faster then any color. Almost impossible to remove from wood. If possible find a better test piece of wood.

 

[tom mesa]

I was working on my Colonial using dye and alcohol and got this red , before dislocating my shoulder and tearing a lot of nerve and muscles. I hope to get back to it and get the red darker soon.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I understand and empathize with your plight. That "red but not cherry red, not too orange, or yellow, or brownish maroon" color can be evasive. Do I want the stripes' borders highlighted and sharp, or the boundaries more subdued?

I got to a color I liked with; 5:1 FN crystals, a wash / neutralization with lye, and an over coat of a stain color called "Lehigh Red. A buffing with 4-O to highlight the lighter parts of the wood and carving. Then Tried `n True Varnish Oil.

Don't overlook lye wash / neutralization as another potential component for your finish. It's a traditional method. Just try the hardware store drain opening stuff. You don't have to boil wood ash. While ammonia and baking powder paste are more standard and contemporary these days---and easier and less dangerous to use, they don't impart another color component to the mix. When I used lye I got a bit of an orange addition, and it seemed to me that the stripes were sharper and jumped out a little more too. You just have to be careful with that stuff (lye). Wear gloves and use eye protection because lye burns can be every bit as serious as acid burns.

And don't forget to take your test pieces outside, or to view them in natural sunlight. Colors can change on you if you only look at them in interior shop light!

It took about 25-30 iterations of various concoctions before I found what I was looking for. Fortunately I had a couple of thinnish scrap pieces from the same blank to work with that I could play with. It's just important to write your formulas on the wood so you can remember them later! If I ran out of wood to play with, I just took it to the belt sander and presto, new wood!

Personally, I find the stain experimentation part of building to be one of the most fun (and frustrating) parts of gun building. A wooden "box of chocolates". Ya never know what you're gonna get.

 

[LSB]

This is a walnut stock refinished with LMF cherry stain and then many thin coats of tung oil. It probably isn't as dark as you want but it shows what the LMF stain will do on walnut.

 

[ord sgt]

This is a piece of cherry. It was my first build in the '80's. No one told me that I couldn't use Minwax cherry stain. I used what I had on hand at the time. It still holds up well after all these years.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

MANY years ago, there was a woodworker out in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin who used to use paint to stain things he made from burls... though I don't know what kind of wood it was.... possibly sugar maple. I still have a wall sconce he made that I inherited from somebody in my family long ago. From what I gather, he would smear it on the wood randomly using different colors and then varnish the item before the paint dried. Now, over the course of half a century or so, I'm sure the pigments have faded a bit, but you can still see it.

With modern pigments, you could probably do much better on fade resistance. I've always thought a stock made from purple heart (purple heart wood - Google Search) would be nice, but purple heart has grains of sand embeded into it and it is hard as a rock.... kinda rough on carving tools, but with the appropriate mix of pigments, you could probably have any color or colors you want in you stock.

 

[flashpoint]

I used iron nitrate and laurel mountain forge maple stain on mine , don't know if this is color your looking for !

That is beautiful.

 

[Zutt-man]

Well I took some advice from you guys and did a mixture of LMF cherry, red alcohol dye and water. I think I may have added a touch of black too. It turned out very nice. Went ahead and applied a coat of oil and will probably give it another 5-6 coats. Will post results when I’m done!

 

[Zutt-man]

Here were my results after 5 rounds of oil (see post above on the stain) and some bone black. I’ve since added two layers of permalyn and will probably add another after I ‘sand’ it back with maroon scotch bright.