finishing walnut stocks

[Robert Hertrich]

First walnut stocked pistol. Should the stock be whiskered like curly maple. Should the grain be filled with Birchwood Casey filler and then stained? Any way to prevent chipping while carving? I am going to final finish with Danish Oil or Keith Casteel oil woodstock finish.

 

[sqqy14]

Normally, walnut does not require staining, but if you do decide to stain it, then you can seal with the Birchwood Casey sealer. If you seal the wood first then the stain will not be able to penetrate the wood.
Regards
Bob

 

[Stophel]

Walnut grain never stops raising, so no need to specifically "whisker" it before finishing. You may need to lightly sand it after your first few LIGHT coats of oil after each coat dries. Put it on a LITTLE at a time, removing the excess from the surface, and put it in the sun to dry. Continue until the grain is filled as you want it.

Some people like to use sanding dust in the oil to help fill the grain a little faster.

 

[Jim Fitzgibbon]

Bob look at my post below (My first picture).That
stock was finished with tung oil only,no stain &
just waxed with paste wax.

I agree no stain!
Fly :nono:

 

[Jim Fitzgibbon]

Let me go on to say this about whiskers.I did
with the tung oil as a cabnet maker told me.After
final sanding & all I hand rubbed the tung oil
for first coat.

The next two coats I put the tung oil on some 600
grit sandpaper & worked it in.My last coat just
a small amount of tung oil hand rubbed in.

This stock looks & feels like the finest wood
furnture that you see in $$$$ stores.No plastic
feel or look.Tung oil seals it from water as good
as anything you can use.

Fly :yakyak:

 

[lowcsp]

I just finished this wilson trade gun the walnut stock was stained with aquafortis and then a linseed oil and turpintine mix with a little beeswax and mineral oil mixture thrown in the mix was rubbed in many times. This come out darker than most people like but maybe I cant sell it so I can keep one for my self.

 

[wayne1967]

I finished the one on the bottom recently. I wiskered with 220 then did a really light 400. This piece turned out really smooth. I did one a while back that was really pitty like tiny pin holes. Could not seem to get it as smooth for some reason.

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[Zonie]

Should the grain be filled with Birchwood Casey filler and then stained? Any way to prevent chipping while carving?

NEVER USE A FILLER BEFORE STAINING.

Fillers will seal the grain and once even partially sealed the wood will not absorb the stain like it should.

As was mentioned, lightly sanding an open grained wood like Walnut with the grain after applying a sealer will fill the open grain pockets nicely and because the wood that is filling the open grain pockets is from the same piece of wood it will exactly match the surface of the stock.

Different folks want different looks so they may disagree with me but I never promote staining walnut unless the wood has some blond heartwood showing. In that case some alcohol based Walnut Stain will help to blend in the blond wood.

 

[tallbear]

Here is what i did with this walnut stock.First i whiskered it several times lightly scrapeing it between wettings.Then I stained it twice with aqua-fortis.I finished it with spar varnish .After the second thinned coat I sanded it while it was wet for the for a few coats to fill the grain.Then a few final coats and then rubbed it back with pumice to knock back the shine.I would stay away from the danish oil as it's not really designed to be a built up finish.

Mitch

 

[rich pierce]

Mitch, I tried AQF but it turned my walnut practice piece black. I'll try again, more dilute. Looks like it enhanced the gain very nicely.

 

[rabjr]

Yeah same here I started with 1/6 strength Nitrate of Iron and diluted it wayy down and every time I tried it on a piece of walnut it turned it black as black can be.

 

[fm tim]

Steven Hughes has an interesting method of filling walnut grain (He is a custom shotgun maker)
He mixes rottenstone with Permalyn sealer to the consistency of toothpaste cream and rubs it on with a circular motion using a piece of soft cloth..
When dry, he wetsands it back to wood. Then it has an ugly grey color.
Does it again if grain is still apparent
One last coat of just Permalyn sealer, by hand, to finish.
See his book "Double Guns and Custom Gunsmithing" from Shooting Sportsman Press

Obviously issues with filling carving so be careful.

 

[tg]

The last one I did I only used scrapers I whiskers it the best I could and after staining I applied a finish of BLO/Marine spar varn and a touch of sprits to thin and hasten drying and burnished it heavily with an antler tip it did not give a baby botton smooth finish but I am satisfied it is not far from what an original early 18th century Walnut stock might look like when compared to the heavily sanded with ultra fine modern sandpaper stocks.

 

[tallbear]

Rich and Swampy
I wish I fully understood why I'm getting better results than you guys are.I will say that I'm not sure diluteing the finished aqua-fortis is the answer but please try it and let me know.I've had poor luck with doing that in the past.I really believe that it has to do more with how it is made in the first place.I have many different mixes of Aqua fortis that I've made and can get different results with different mixes.I really believe that the temperature that the aqua fortis reaches while the iron is being disolved has a lot to do with the color you achieve with the aqua-fortis.It may also have a lot to do with the wood.If one of you wants to waste the postage and send me a small sample of your wood I would give it a shot useing my mix and see what happens.

Tg
My stock was scraped not sanded.

Mitch

 

[rabjr]

:haha: After what I've seen, I have no desire to use it on Walnut ever again. Only did the first time because I had an old stock here not going to be used for anything and I was bored at the time. So I diluted and tried it to see how it reacted to it. Went all the way from 1/6 to 1/48.

 

[Jim Fitzgibbon]

Why stain walnut at all? :idunno:

Fly

 

[Stophel]

I agree. Don't stain walnut! SO much time, money and effort is spent to make all sorts of other woods LOOK LIKE WALNUT....why, then, do people want to change the color of walnut????

:grin:

 

[Robert Hertrich]

Should the grain be filled with Birchwood Casey filler and then stained? Any way to prevent chipping while carving?

NEVER USE A FILLER BEFORE STAINING.

Fillers will seal the grain and once even partially sealed the wood will not absorb the stain like it should.

As was mentioned, lightly sanding an open grained wood like Walnut with the grain after applying a sealer will fill the open grain pockets nicely and because the wood that is filling the open grain pockets is from the same piece of wood it will exactly match the surface of the stock.

Different folks want different looks so they may disagree with me but I never promote staining walnut unless the wood has some blond heartwood showing. In that case some alcohol based Walnut Stain will help to blend in the blond wood.

I am going with the non staining but I do have some blond wood that needs to be darken. Then go with the tung oil finish. Thanks for all the good inputs and seeing all those good looking guns.

 

[tg]

"Tg
My stock was scraped not sanded."

It looks very Good tallbear, mine shows a bit of pore/grain but it is as I expected due to the method, I thought I had seen sanding mentioned in your description, probably confused it with someone else. Mine shows pore/grain but it is what I wanted and expected, I was trying to get away from what to me looks like a "perfect" modern gun finish, not to say that there are not many, many beautiful guns finished/filled with sand paper and slurry or various other methods using sandpaper, I have used several of these in the past, just lookng for a different "thing" this time.These p[ics treally do,not show very good closeups to show waht we are looking for but some pores/grain can be seen

 

[Jim Fitzgibbon]

Mine shows none of that,smoth like a babys butt.
I'm not exspert & don't claim to be.I just took
the advice of a seasoned ole cabnet maker that
done this stuff his whole life.

After sanding with 400 grit.Cleaned it free of
dust.Hand rubbed first coat & let it dry over night.
The next coat I applyed the tung oil on with
600 grit wet dry sand paper & each time after till
the forth coat, as I just hand rubbed again by hand.

Beleave me theres not a low spot in it anywhere.
That ole timer knew his stuff & that's the truth!

Fly :hmm: