Stock Options

[FKnorr]

Hello Gents,
I have a question about stock finishes.
What type of stain, color brand do you use on these curly maple stocks? I am in the process of finishing up a flinter. Can you use a minwax brand stain? I plan on using linspeed oil as a finish. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks
Frank

 

[Swampman]

Don't use Minwax. Get some Dangler's or Laurel Mountain Forge stain. Forget the Linspeed. Use Formby's or Minwax Satin Tung Oil Finish.

 

:applause: Amen to that and I have tried about all of them over the years.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Since there are other options I will suggest trying leather dye with alcohol added, pottasium permanganate (fades out some), and for a finish Jim chambers' traditional stock finish is good.
Any of these I would use over minwax and linspeed.

 

[Zonie]

Different strokes I guess.
First off I would say do not use any oil based stains. Either water base or alcohol based stains work well.
I have used Birchwood Casey Walnut Stain, Master Solar-Lux and several other brands and had good success.

There are a lot of people here who favor Aquafortis which is basically iron desolved in Nitric Acid. To make it turn brown, heat has to be applied after coating the wood. Too much heat will turn the wood black. It also has to be neutralized and is very difficult to buy comercially.

For a finish, I use Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil. Some others don't like it, but it has always worked well for me.

 

[FKnorr]

I know the nitric acid is hard to get. Why not the linspeed oil? I know a builder who used these combinations and was adament about using this combination. What about color, colonial maple, rosewood, what looks the best on curly maple?

 

[Zonie]

Everyone has their own idea of what color looks best.
There are several posts on the forum showing what folks have done with their guns. I suggest you look around and see what you like.
The following guns were treated with lye water, then stained using BC Walnut, BC Maple and BC Colonial Brown. These last two aren't made any more, but the stocks with a more redish tint used them.
Actually none of these guns have just one color of stain on them. That is why I like the water based or alcohol based stains. You can thin them and work up on the color you want by applying several coats of different stains until you get what you want.

Don't quote because these were built me because these were built some years ago, but from left to right I think I used the following stains:
1: 1 Walnut, 3 Colonial Brown
2: 2 Walnut
3: 1 Walnut, 2 Maple
4: 2 Walnut, 1 Colonial Brown
5,6: 3 Walnut, 3 Colonial Brown

The Maple stains tend to be brownish, the Colonial Brown is a redish brown.
Although the BC Maple and Colonial Brown are not available any more, other brands stains with similar names produce similar colors.
Also remember, no two pieces of Maple will be the same color even though they have exactly the same stain on them.

 

[davy]

Everyone has their own idea of what color looks best.

You outta be ashamed to show such poor wood on this forum Zonie! :rotf: Shame on you! :blah:

Davy

 

[flashpanner]

are all of the pictured rifles yours? If so, sick and wrong!!! I want your job so that I can afford your toys!!! Where do I apply?
Nice collection! Sorry for all of the drooling. :grin:

 

[Herb]

I Like Laurel Mountain Forge Lancaster Maple. And I use Formby's low gloss tung oil. Have a friend here who builds rifles, used linseed oil for many years. Traditional, doncha' know. He recently sent a rifle back east (from Utah) and it swole up in the humidity. He is now looking for something more moisture resistant.

 

[FKnorr]

Thanks guys for all your input. I dug deep and looked at past posts for more info on this subject. I found much valuable information. I have a bottle of Tru-oil and some Formby's traditional Tung Oil.

I do have some stains from minwax and CabotStains but these are oil base.I suppose it's off to the store to look for a stain. I will use the Formby's Tung Oil (low gloss). I have used this on some stick bows I built and had good results as well as Tru-oil.

 

[noahmercy]

How do, Snarf.

Not to be the voice of dissention, but I used LinSpeed on my first ML build (a Lyman GPR) as well as on some other stocks I've refinished and never had a complaint. I like the fact that I don't have to use a filler with it and I can control the gloss easily, plus it's easy to touch up if the need arises.

I know plain boiled linseed oil is not a particularly great finish, but the LinSpeed has another additive (varnish maybe?) which means it dries hard and is far more weather resistant.

As for stains...I can't help ya'. My stock work has been limited to walnut and I haven't used any stain a'tall.

:thumbsup:

 

Zonie, I'm very jealous of your collection they're absolutely beautiful!! Did you build these yourself or did you have someone else build them for you?

 

[Zonie]

You outta be ashamed to show such poor wood on this forum Zonie! :rotf: Shame on you! :blah:

Davy[/b][/quote]

I'm sorry. :redface:

To answer the question "are all those yours?" the answer is yes. I built them (and some others) over the past 10 years.
Someday I might consider selling them to make my wife happy. :hmm:

For a view of them and more out in the sunlight you might want to follow these links:
LOCK SIDE
LOCKPLATE SIDE

 

[LSU TIGER]

This is aqua fortis and Tried and True Oil finish.

 

[ptk1126]

Does anyone have pix that illustrate what
the Lancaster maple from LMF looks like on
a maple stock ?

I am trying to decide what stain to use on a
southern mountain style maple stock but it is
tough without seeing what the colors look like
(first try at building a gun).

Thanks
Paul

 

[54JNoll]

Sorry, I do not have a picture of it on a finishe rifle but I can show you what it looks like on this test piece I used. The reddish end shows the Lancaster Maple it goes from 4 coats thinned 50% to three, to two, to one coat and then to the Honey Maple stain. It was finished off with LMF Permalyn Finish


Well it did not go through the first time. I will try again.

 

[54JNoll]

 

[Herb]

Here is Carole's .40 flintlock I made, Laurel Mountain Forge Lancaster Maple stain and tung oil.

And here is the best photo I have of a .36 cal Samuel Fairies Ohio rifle I built, Lancaster Maple stain. This is Keith with his 100 yard offhand shot at the silhouette in a blanket shoot. See his shot in the orange paster? See how accurate Lancaster Maple makes your rifle?

I also just finished a Green River parts Hawken rifle, will take a photo of it, maple stock and L. Maple stain.

 

We had a guy here on the forum who built a gorgeous Lancaster rifle from a TOW kit a while back. He went through a pretty extensive stain/finish decision process, and the thread is a good read.

He bought a bottle of all of LMF's stains, and stained scrap maple pieces with them, and took a pic of the result:

Here's the thread:[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/44558/hl/rootnuke/tp/1/[/url]

He ended up using a home-brew Aqua Fortis, with fantastic results. Here's a pic of the finished gun:

Pretty amazing gun for a first build. He has lots and lots of photos of the entire build at his web site,[url] http://www.rootnuke.com[/url]. Anyway, the main thing was to show you the first pic of what all of the different LMF stains look like on maple.