How to achieve this stock finish?

[Ferret Master]

Please explain the chemical difference between wood and leather dye? Once you get past the label you might be surprised. I work with both wood and leather and use many different dyes interchangeably.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It’s best to use wood stains for wood. IMHO, leather dye is for leather.
sorry guys, don’t want to step on toes, just think it makes sense.

I Know, Right?

That was my reaction when I first saw the stuff being used on gunstocks.
I was taught to refurbish WWII surplus rifle stocks. These were on German Mausers, and American Enfields. After they were stripped of the finish and years of oil, they were then treated to remove what dents in the wood could be removed, and then the Fiebing's dye was applied. After the proper application..., several coats of boiled linseed oil or tung oil were used to finish the stock. Results were amazing.

So I've tried "wood stain" on gunstocks, and quite frankly the ones I tried were not as good as Fiebings when talking about a plain wood gunstock. Now if you have curly maple, then you want something nitric and some heat to bring out that curl, but for the least expensive wood stocks, I have no complaints about Fiebings.

Do you know what the differences are in say Minwax wood stain and Fiebings (the alcohol based) leather dye?

LD

 

[oldwood]

A well used suggestion.............If you like black highlights on curly maple , and you don't want your expensive curly maple to be all black , and maybe turn green down the road, just use straight uncut , Fiebings black alcohol stain. If in a hurry , dry the wood w/ a heat gun. When dry and warm to the touch , #OOOO steel wool the whiskers off. If it is desirable to make the rifle a Southern Appalachian black rifle , double up on the black stain another coat , dry w/ heat gun again to touch,and feel.
I prefer the ability to adjust the shades in the staining process. If color is desired to match some color scheme on an original rifle ,mix up some red , yellow , to make an orangeish red back color to the black base color. The black , stains the soft wood in the stock , and the color shades stains what's left. Again , always dry the wood w/heat gun after staining and steel wool any remaining whiskers off. Since the wood is dried immediately after application of the alcohol stain , steel wool rusting , which I've never seen , is not an issue. After final stain coat and drying w/heat , the wood is ready for a penetrating coat of finish. Once this initial coat of finish is dry , finish how ever you like... I don't use linseed based finishes , but if it works for you, good............oldwood

 

[MI MAN]

I've got a Kibler SMR on the way and I'm trying to figure out what finish I'd like to put on it. While looking at Sitting Fox kits (already planning my next build. Need a squirrel getter..haven't even got the first on yet....) I noticed this squirrel gun that I really like the finish of. How would one go about achieving a wood finish like this? Is this just aqua fortis and bone black? Wood seems more red than what I've seen with aqua fortis.

Ripley Squirrel Gun

View attachment 41816

I would consider tannic acid plus aquafortis.

 

[stewart.leach]

After three rifles and a fowler, I got smart and used the maple slabs used to package the parts sets as stain test strips. Wrote the stain combinations on the wood, then applied the stains, then a coat of final finish over half the three inch long stain panel. Now have about twenty combinations.

 

[Spikebuck]

Hi,
I suspect it is a very red brown stain possibly like Jim Klein's "red Brown" stain.

dave

If that's the case, it may have Klein's Orange Toner under it as well. While I don't have normal color vision, some of it looks too light to me to just be the red brown stain. I've used the two in combination and you can get a similar coloration to that.