Colleagues,
The Way to re-age a repaired old rifle is with Briwax Black
Patinating wax. It blackens everything. Then you polish
off everything that isn't in a crack or wood pore.
Patina is mostly oxidized hand oil (or "man fat") and fine dirt.
Melt some beeswax and add a few drops of olive green
oil paint and a drop of burnt umber and a drop of black.
It should be a translucent dark green color.
When it cools, but is still soft, force it into the cracks,
and crevices and apply on the places where hand contact
would deposit oil and dirt, and then not be wiped away
by use. Burnish the wax with a cloth.
When blending in a new wood patch, use a magnifying visor
or glass to inspect the grain at the edges of the patch.
Use the tip of an exacto knife to cut in the grain pores
ACROSS the patch/stock joint line.
This is especially important on open pore woods like walnut.
Blacken the new pores with Briwax and the joint will be
greatly diminished visually.
NO, I don't build fakes. I learned this from a friend who is
a furniture restorer. The techniques work.
One other thing.
If you have raised edges of a split in thin wood, you can
heat the wood with a hot air gun to soften it and press
the curled edges back down and clamp them until they
are cool. They will stay put. Then run in some glue and
reclamp.
Just some stuff I picked up along the way.
Reboundspring
