Lightening a worm stain...

[oldwood]

I have a fantastic termite holed , and stained preshaped longrifle stock w/ barrel already inlet , and r/r hole drilled. Just thinking about building it , causes what little adrenaline I have left to make me excited. Gotta find a termite stained piece of maple for the wood patch box. Might have to go see a fellow to check his scrap pile for a piece. I'll use straight black alcohol stain for the first coat. Dry with a heat gun , polish w/ 0000 steel wool that's been cleaned of shipping oil with acetone , and dried with a cloth. Next , I'll stain with alcohol stain mixed using orange , red , and yellow , to find the stain color I desire , on scrap wood. Apply the chosen stain combination , and dry w/ heat gun again. Polish again w/ the wool , and adjust the color If I want again. If more stain was needed , repeat the heat gun , and wool polish again. With staining concluded , the wood will be warm to the touch from the heat gun drying , and ready to apply a viscose ( penetrating ) coat of thin type finish , until the stock won't soak up any more finish. Wipe the stock dry , and set it up in a warm place to allow the first coat of finish to set up hard. Could take a day or two ro set up , so polyurithane finish won't get sticky . If it does , allow the project to set until the poly hardens. If poly isn't your favorite finish apply whatever you want. It wil be a thing of beauty in the end. Try the whole process on scrap wood using the steps outlined , if you wish. Remember , finishing wood , is 90% technique , and 10% materials. Knowledge from doing this for 50+ years. I like easy.

 

[reddogge]

Re-thinking my earlier answer I'd leave it be. A great character mark. I carved a decoy out of white cedar that had two splits down the top. Rather than filling them, I dribbled epoxy into them to seal and stabilize and then painted it as normal. They looked great when done and added to the decoy. One of a kind, so to speak.