Shoe Polish as a Stain??

[Doc Will]

I received my copy of Muzzleloader magazine yesterday and noticed a builder had wrote in stating that he was using Griffin Brown shoe polish as a stain, and having great success with it bringing out the figure in Maple. ::
Has anyone else tried shoe polish as a stain and had any success with it?
Doc Will
Keep Yer Powder Dry

 

[Xtramad]

I've tried asphalt, works great if you want a deep golden brown stain. I'm sure shoe polish has some good points, but dosn't i contain some sort of wax or something? All the old shoe polish recipes I've seen contain wax, terpentine and often some sort of vegetable oil.

 

Nope, but I have used Febrings leather dye with good success. I tried some shoe polish once on scrap and didn't like it but maybe it was the brand? Febrings comes in several colors which you can mix...use rubber gloves or you'll dye your skin....I like their dark brown the best, or you can mix in a little cordovan to get a redder color. :m2c:

 

[Herb]

That letter under "Smoke Signals" said "Griffin brown shoe dye". I think that is a liquid dye and not a paste wax. Like Mike Roberts, I also have used Fiebing's Dark Brown Professional Oil Dye and like it very much. Tandy probably sells it. Saddle shops out here have it. It penetrates well, even through some finishes (probably not polyurethane types), dries fast and doesn't raise the grain. See my posts under Builder's Bench "Re: Building a Hawken" dated 7/02, 7/12 and 7/13 for a maple Hawken stock I built and stained.

 

[shmrck1]

Doc Will,
I will try it but i think i will use liquid Kiwi on some scrap wood first!!
snake-eyes eace: :thumbsup:

 

[Doc Will]

Herb is right. I stand corrected the article does state using "Griffin Shoe Dye". Which makes more sense being that polish would have wax in it.
Doc Will
Keep Yer Powder Dry

 

[tg]

I saw a gun that shoe polishs had been used to make a faux curl in the maple...looked pretty good even up close but I do not know the trick to useing it with sucess.

 

CONFUSION ALERT!!!!!

There is a big diference between SHOE DYE AND SHOE POLISH.

Shoe dye is basically a leather dye, often made using alcahol as a base and almost identical to the stains we pay big buck$$$$ for from the gun supply houses. You can work with them just as you would any alcahol based wood stain.

Shoe polish is usually a protective compound of wax with a small amount of color added.

I prefer to dilute these dyes down to the see through level. If I use them straight it always looks like the wood has been dyed. I havn't used a dye for mny years.
:results:

 

[Herb]

Doc- You can see another rifle I built and stained with dark brown leather dye, in the Photo forum. "Bruner Flintlock", 4/15/04.

 

[Donny]

Beware, Alcohol dyes can be removed from a gunstock, through the finish, by some cleaning solvents. Also, I have had uneven absorption in the application where there was a soft spot or streak in the wood. :boohoo:
Don

 

[swquiro]

In response to Donny's comment, I used Fiebig brown dye on a very dense piece of maple, several coats, and let it dry a day or so and then started applying tung oil. The more oil I applied, the more color came off, until I ended up with a golden color with a bit of brown and red in the curl. I was disappointed at first, but now I love it. Looks very old. Id send a picture but Im about two thousand miles away from it at the moment.