Stain results on my Lyman .54 GPR Flint

[mykeal]

First the 'before' pics - wood is sanded to 220 here:

From there I dewhiskered and applied one coat of Herter's French Red Filler and Satin from Brownell's:

I've applied the first coat of Tung oil and it's drying:

Next step is to buff the gloss off with 000 steel wool and apply the second coat of Tung Oil, dry and buff again, and then wax it. I'm preceding everything with practice on the witness boards so I can see the effect before I commit the stock to it. This suggests that two coats of Tung oil will be sufficient to get the color and finish I want,

The inletted areas have one coat of Tung oil as well to seal them from moisture, etc.

Then on to the metal work...

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Lookin good. :thumbsup: Those GPRs always have good figure in the wood.

I haven't had the same experience with tung oil. The stuff I have will just keep soaking in and never give a good shine. I like it for the first couple coats then use Tru-Oil on top.

What type of finish is the metal gonna get? GW

 

[RickD]

Pretty wood

 

[deanscamaro]

I just wanted to let you know that your post helped me in what I am getting ready to do. I have a Pedersoli Pennsylvania Caribine Scout, 50 caliber percussion coming in the mail. I have been trying to decide how to stain/finish it and your results pointed me in the right direction. I am a woodworker and have worked with and like tung oil. The color you got with that Herters French is just right. I also have a Traditions Kentucky, 50 caliber pistol kit that I want to match to the rifle.

Thanks!

Dean :thumbsup:

 

[MSW]

looks nice!

 

[bucktales]

mykeal,
She's coming along great.
I didn't like the color and finish on my factory built GPR. I used it in bad weather a few times and saw it wasn't weathertight, i.e., lots of open grain. It was actually soaking in water. Color was too dark too.
I stripped it down and stained, filled and sealed the grain and finished it. I also whiskered it 3 or 4 times. I used a soup made of Tung oil, a bit of mineral oil and on the last few coats, a few drops of spar varnish mixed in. I gave it a total of 8 coats.
When I take it out hunting or when I clean it, I rub it down with Howard's Feed Wax. I also knocked the gloss down a bit with 0000 Bronze wool.
I think it came back pretty good and looks fairly good for a working gun.
These GPRs have nice wood ,when it is revealed.

 

[mykeal]

bucktales - very nicely done.

MSW & RickD - Thanks.

deano - I think the Herter's fills the walnut open grain very nicely, and thus the tung oil gives a different finish than it does on wood that's not treated with it. More gloss - I've used it on 4 other guns and have never had this much shine before. It buffs up very nicely with 000 steel wool - very easy to control the amount of shine with little effort. More like Tru-Oil, but not as hard a finish.

grey whiskers - The wood on my GPR is walnut, of course, actually a little darker than the 'before' pictures show. The Herter's worked out very nicely - it was suggested by another forum member and I'm really grateful. I purchased a walnut plank and cut out some witness boards to experiment with various stains. Herter's added a a great reddish tinge while helping the grain stand out, plus filling up the open grain.

I'm on the fence about the metal finish. Another forum member (Aeronca43, I think) blued and then antiqued his GPR metal and I really like the result. But, I've always browned my bp guns, some with the Birchwood Casey and some with LMF. Browning might not go with this wood. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I'm retired - I left decision making behind long ago.

 

[tg]

Looks nice, that is a very nice looking piece of wood on that gun, get'er done and do some shootin'

 

[steelerzzz]

What do you mean by "dewhiskered" ?
Thanks

 

[mykeal]

What do you mean by "dewhiskered" ?
Thanks

When you're done sanding there are still very small broken splinters of wood left in the open grain holes. The more open-grained the wood is, the more there are. Walnut is such a wood. These 'whiskers' will stand up and be noticed when the wood is dampened, like when stain is applied, and then it's too late to remove them without damaging the stain. So, you dampen the sanded wood with a sponge, blow it dry with a heat gun or hair dryer and watch the hair grow out of the wood. It's quite amazing. Many people dewhisker with the edge of a piece of glass; I used 400 grit sandpaper and dewhiskered twice.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Use a cabinet scraper or one you make yourself to take the whiskers off the wood. The secret it so always stroke against the grain, and the edge of your tool will cut the whiskers off flush with the surface of the stock.

 

[Mike Brooks]

grey whiskers - The wood on my GPR is walnut,

I don't think it is american black walnut. I believe this is some kind of european wood.

 

[Len Graves]

Didn't know if it's a typo, but I use #0000 steel wool for buffing off finish. Len

 

[Jim-Iowa]

May I ask what Tung oil you used?
I know there is pure Tung oil available and many brands are a Tung Oil Poly Varnish blend.
I have used Homer Formsby on many woodworking projects and know it's a blend.

 

[mykeal]

This is Minwax Tung Oil Finish, which is the blend product. I've also used Formsby's blended product and find them to be equivalent.

I would prefer to have used the pure product but was not able to find any locally. I'm not particularly happy with the results I've gotten so far - it's too glossy by far.

Jim-Iowa - Nope, not a typo. Well, yes I suppose it really was. I've used the 000 so far, will be switching to 0000 for the final buff.

MikeBrooks - I don't think I said what variety of walnut it is. Now that you mention it, however, I would lean towards the American walnut. The reason I say that is that I bought a walnut plank from a local wood supplier to use for witness boards, and he claimed it was American walnut; it matches the stock wood exactly, to my eye, both before and after sanding. I'm no expert myself.

 

[Old40Rod]

I don't think I said what variety of walnut it is. Now that you mention it, however, I would lean towards the American walnut.

The Lyman BP weapon user manuals refer to them as "European Walnut".

Staining: The European Walnut stock, as supplied, will finish to a nice
warm brown color if finished without the use of a darkening stain. The
wood of most old muzzleloading rifles and pistols was very dark in color.

 

[mykeal]

The Lyman BP weapon user manuals refer to them as "European Walnut".

Yep. You're right. Need to have a chat with my wood supplier about the plank he sold me. The good news is that it does match the Lyman stock, so my witness boards are giving a good prediction of how the stock will look.

 

[Old40Rod]

Something close for a witness board is what is important, not its ancestory :wink:

Your stock is much lighter than the stock on my GPR kit. Mine was dark enough that I didn't dare use any stain... BLO/spar varnish only.

 

[mykeal]

Yeah, matching is what's important.

My wood guy swears his planks are American. The match is phenomenal, so either Lyman got a batch of American walnut, or he got some English mixed up in his stock, or I got damn lucky getting a color match between the two. In the end, it don't matter how, just what.