Stain for straight grain maple.

[Jasonb1911]

I'm finishing up a rifle that I had built for me. The stock is a nice straight grain maple and I want to stain it so that it brings out the grain in the wood. I don't want it to be too dark, but not blonde either. What would be a good stain for this wood?

 

[painter]

Nothing wrong with aqua fortis, IMO.

 

[Polecat_Tom]

I will second the aqua fortis. I have had good luck with it.

 

[64Springer]

Trans-Tint Reddish Brown alcohol based stain.


You need to find out if Aqua Fortis will work on plain maple.

AF may not produce the effect you're looking for.

 

[nchawkeye]

Something like this??

 

[IanH]

Third the "aqua fortis" (iron nitrate solution). I make my own by using ferric nitrate crystals dissolved in distilled water or alcohol. I prefer to make my own that way as opposed to dissolving nails in nitric acid because it's a lot safer and I can control he concentration to get the shade I want. You can test a spot, blush it with a heat gun, and wet it with alcohol to see what it will look like finished. If you want darker, soak in more coats or increase concentration. If you hate it, sand it off and start experimenting with alcohol dyes.

Ferric nitrate from the jungle website at 1 tsp/fluid ounce water, two coats, after finishing (ash stock, yours will be different).

 

[deerstalkert]

Third the "aqua fortis" (iron nitrate solution). I make my own by using ferric nitrate crystals dissolved in distilled water or alcohol. I prefer to make my own that way as opposed to dissolving nails in nitric acid because it's a lot safer and I can control he concentration to get the shade I want. You can test a spot, blush it with a heat gun, and wet it with alcohol to see what it will look like finished. If you want darker, soak in more coats or increase concentration. If you hate it, sand it off and start experimenting with alcohol dyes.

Ferric nitrate from the jungle website at 1 tsp/fluid ounce water, two coats, after finishing (ash stock, yours will be different).

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Ianh? my eyes are bad tonight, was that ash spalted? i am building with a plank of local birch right now and it has some spalting.
that is a handsome stock. handsome, right before beautiful.

 

[IanH]

Jim Kibler called it "bubbly" ash for lack of a better description. It's unusual if nothing else, I really like it. He sold all the best ones before I found out he had a few from this one, odd tree but I begged him out of a cull stock that had some blowouts and fixed it up. I agonized over stain for weeks but between advice from J. W. Filipski and some finishes Mark Elliot did I got it worked out just the way I wanted.

Barrel channel blowout repair:

 

[deerstalkert]

i can't see if it is spalted, i sure can't see any repair! that is the most interesting piece of ash i have ever seen.

 

[Jasonb1911]

Something like this??
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Something like that, yes. Maybe just a bit darker.

 

[nchawkeye]

That's 2 coats of Laurel Mountain Forge, Honey Maple..

 

[godutch]

i can't see if it is spalted, i sure can't see any repair! that is the most interesting piece of ash i have ever seen.

Ditto on this post. 'Love it !

 

[HSmithTX]

Tannic acid and the aqua fortis for me.

 

[Mtgelaude]

Third the "aqua fortis" (iron nitrate solution). I make my own by using ferric nitrate crystals dissolved in distilled water or alcohol. I prefer to make my own that way as opposed to dissolving nails in nitric acid because it's a lot safer and I can control he concentration to get the shade I want. You can test a spot, blush it with a heat gun, and wet it with alcohol to see what it will look like finished. If you want darker, soak in more coats or increase concentration. If you hate it, sand it off and start experimenting with alcohol dyes.

Ferric nitrate from the jungle website at 1 tsp/fluid ounce water, two coats, after finishing (ash stock, yours will be different).

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That stock is crazy, congratulations. Probably Never see one like that again.

 

[Eric Krewson]

If you use aqufortis, I would dilute it to about 50-50 with water, straight out of the bottle the wood can be very dark and get darker with time, this has been my experience.

Here is maple with a 50-50 mix and one coat. I donate these bow tillering tools to a St Jude auction. These are not made from the same chunk of wood and why the color varies piece to piece. The good folk here and on the ALR site sent me several boxes of cutoffs to make the donated tools with, I ended up with 45# of cutoffs, a lifetime supply. I have raised about 3K donating these tools so far, the auction is held every year.

Aqufortis straight out of the bottle, one coat. I used it on the hickory ramrod as well followed by diluted mahogany leather dye to make a match to the stock wood. I like a ramrod to disappear under the gun.