Ready to Stain! Woodsrunner.

[Marplot]

Been dampening and de-whiskering our woodsrunner (carved by Kibler) Seems to be smooth. I want a deep brownish red subdued color and don't know where to start. Suggestions? Photos? Thinking the barrel and lock to be brown.
here are some I like, Mostly like my Swiss-Yaeger.

I feel that I have one good shot and want to make it count!

 

[Kentuckyjed]

Ferric nitrate, blush heat, scotchbrite pad with Tried and True varnish oil cut 50/50 with turpentine. That's what I have been having great results with. I purchased the ferric crystals online and mix with isopropyl alcohol to desired color. Here is a picture of an old .40 that I did using this method

 

[Phil Coffins]

Use water base stains and you can adjust the color, use an oil based stain and you will cover up the figure. Have you watched Kibler’s videos?

 

[Kentuckyjed]

Here is a Kibler video I used this video for reference.

 

[JohnBHM]

I was very happy with tannic acid and iron nitrate from Kibler's but I would not call it subdued. For my SMR I wanted a sudued look and went with an oil stain. This is Walnut so I can't say exactly what it would have done on Maple.

 

[IanH]

Ferric nitrate crystals in a very saturated 50% isopropyl alcohol solution. Buy crystals on a-zon and make your own or buy the ready-made solution from Kibler.

Apply and blush per Kibler's video.

 

[TerryK]

I used two coats of iron nitrate, letting each dry a day, then heated. Used 6 coats Minwax tung oil. Worked great on two Kiblers. If I get a 3rd, that is what I'll do. Really easy.

 

[user 34300]

Start with iron nitrate. After blushing, assess the final color by wetting the wood with water or alcohol. If you are happy go ahead and apply finish.

If you want to add black, use tannic acid or black dye stain. Chamber and others have various colors. The colors can be used to force the wood to approximate some particular look. Start by diluting the dye stains with solvent. Do not apply full strength at first. Assess the color periodically with alcohol on the wood.

Never use hardware store stains, oil base or otherwise on maple. Do not use any finish until you are happy with the color. Once finish has been applied you are locked in. The same goes for oil based stains.

Since every piece of wood is different nobody can tell how to get an exact color. More and more I do not fiddle with the dye stains so much. I tend to embrace what the wood does with the iron nitrate. I suspect that is what the old timers would have done.

 

[Marplot]

Use water base stains and you can adjust the color, use an oil based stain and you will cover up the figure. Have you watched Kibler’s videos?

Did watch Kibler's videos. He is a master of simplicity! I am seriously thinking. I did buy this gun in the pictures and want my woodsrunner look like this,

Also had heard that water base stains could fade in sunlight? I am just asking?

 

[reddogge]

This one has one coat of aquafortis. I reshaped the lock moldings and had to patch it some with aquafortis. I had hoped for a little darker finish.

My dad's old rifle had two coats of aquafortis. I've recently rubbed some high spots out which this photo doesn't show. Ignore some of his mistakes. He wasn't a gun guy.

 

[IanH]

"Ready to Stain!"​

Are you sure?

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Find some scrap maple and try different methods. I like aqua fortis. Is it the same as iron or ferric nitrate? That's what I've been told but I don't know for sure.

 

[IanH]

Find some scrap maple and try different methods. I like aqua fortis. Is it the same as iron or ferric nitrate? That's what I've been told but I don't know for sure.

No. Aqua Fortis is what the Greeks called nitric acid.

Ferric nitrate, the stuff we use to stain curly maple, is made by dissolving iron in nitric acid until it won't take any more and then then letting the sludge settle so the clear amber liquid can be poured off and used to tint wood.

I don't know where the "AF" or "Aqua Fortis" as a stock stain came to be but it is thrown around a lot by people who should know better, repeated by those who don't know any better, and thus pervades the whole muzzleloader universe.

 

[reddogge]

No. Aqua Fortis is what the Greeks called nitric acid.

Ferric nitrate, the stuff we use to stain curly maple, is made by dissolving iron in nitric acid until it won't take any more and then then letting the sludge settle so the clear amber liquid can be poured off and used to tint wood.

I don't know where the "AF" or "Aqua Fortis" as a stock stain came to be but it is thrown around a lot by people who should know better, repeated by those who don't know any better, and thus pervades the whole muzzleloader universe.

Hmmm. It's mentioned in Dixon's book and Buchele and Shumway's book on rifle building.

 

[IanH]

Hmmm. It's mentioned in Dixon's book and Buchele and Shumway's book on rifle building.
View attachment 278613

And they are all ignorant. Do your research.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Aqua fortis is nitric acid as stated above. The term was added as a title to some of thr commercially bottled concoctions and it stuck. All gunmakers didn't dissolve iron in it either to color their stocks.
Here is a maple stock done about 25 years ago in nitric that was cut with crik water, NO iron.

 

[Indy Durtdigger]

So. AF was marketing of sorts that stuck to the point it's become synonymous even though it's not technically correct? Something like going to the store to grab a coke full well knowing you're going after a refreshing RC Cola?

 

[reddogge]

It was a term that was commonly used in the 70s and 80s as I remember. Since I'm older and built guns back then perhaps that's where I picked it up.

 

[IanH]

It was a term that was commonly used in the 70s and 80s as I remember. Since I'm older and built guns back then perhaps that's where I picked it up.

Hey, at least I learned a lot more where the misnomer got started. My issue with all of this is the confusion created when someone incorrectly describes their process. Aqua Fortis stain and Ferric Nitrate stain are two different animals. Typically the ferric nitrate gives more robust contrast and color due to being a vehicle for delivering iron molecules into the wood surface so it could oxidize and that oxidation be accelerated by heat to yield the familiar and very robust orange/brown color. Nitric acid stain is reacting with the minerals and components of the wood itself, and is very, very dangerous to handle and will dissolve iron on contact. Ferric Nitrate is only mildly irritating to skin, although if you get it on your skin the only sure way to remove it is by cremation