oil lantern smudge

[chawbeef]

An older gentleman who has built several long rifles gave me a hint on getting the curl to "pop" on a Maple stock. He said to take the chimney off of the lantern and let the black smoke coat the stock. Then wet your hands and rub it in the wood. Do this twice and use a Walnut stain.
I was wondering if any other people here have done this??...............Daniel

 

[Black Hand]

Use Aqua fortis...makes curl pop better than anything else.

 

[Larry Akers]

I've heard of using graphite in the same way.

 

[Dane]

Here we go again.

Ferric Nitrate, (aka: Aqua fortis) will bring out the curl for in any wood with tannins. It is a chemical reaction, and literally changes the color of the wood itself, as far as it penetrates, AND, its intensity is based on the amount of tannins naturally in the wood. Good, deep, permanent stain.
You can actually add tannins with a tannic acid bath before the ferric nitrate.
For myself, it's worked for the last 800 or so years with great results, and I spend an awful lot of time cleaning lamp soot off my guns, I'm darn sure not going to rub it into the stock.

 

[Artificer]

Daniel,

I have heard of using this (and similar techniques) to get black colour into the pores of the wood, though mainly I have heard of it when using Black Walnut for furniture and gun stocks. IOW, some kind of black substance was used as a "filler" for the pores of the wood, to make any kind of figure or curl in the wood to stand out more. I've heard of this being done before or after it was stained and yes, even with Aqua Fortis.

However, the use of black filler in walnut gun stocks seems to be much more common in extremely high grade and expensive Circassian Walnut stocks, than other stocks.

Gus

 

[chawbeef]

In response to Black Hand and Dane. Thanks for your input but I am well aware of Aqua Fortis. :surrender: My question was to see if anyone ever tried the smudge method. :v
Thanks to Articifer for his knowledge on the subject. :thumbsup: ..............Daniel

 

[Col. Batguano]

Daniel,

I have heard of using this (and similar techniques) to get black colour into the pores of the wood, though mainly I have heard of it when using Black Walnut for furniture and gun stocks. IOW, some kind of black substance was used as a "filler" for the pores of the wood, to make any kind of figure or curl in the wood to stand out more. I've heard of this being done before or after it was stained and yes, even with Aqua Fortis.

However, the use of black filler in walnut gun stocks seems to be much more common in extremely high grade and expensive Circassian Walnut stocks, than other stocks.

Gus

Thinking about using English Walnut for my next build, and English Sporting Rifle. Wondering if that might be the approach to take then? Right now I'm just thinking about it and researching the architecture. Hadn't given any thought to finish, other than I would think a high end "fine gun" might be deserving of a high end fine finish, such as is currently applied by the current British fine gun makers. But again, I haven't researched that either.

 

[Artificer]

Back in the mid 80's at the SHOT Show in New Orleans, I spoke to one of the older stock fitters/finishers at the Rheinhardt Fajen booth. He mentioned both black and red stock fillers used in high end walnut.

The problem is that I have never done it and don't know how to do it. Further, I don't know if the technique goes back to even the percussion era of our forum. It may, but I just don't know.

Gus