Tweaking a Kibler Rifle Kit

[Pete G]

I experimented this week putting a tablespoon of lye in about a quart of water and rubbed it on a smooth piece of scrap cherry. You get a real nice dark finish looking like a aged rifle. Make sure you wipe down with a baking soda solution afterwards to neutralize the lye.

Lye is a base and is neutralized (if required) with acid.

 

[Zonie]

Great job and I love the color.
cherry stain: a pinch of this and that? Did you take notes on what and how much?
I experimented this week putting a tablespoon of lye in about a quart of water and rubbed it on a smooth piece of scrap cherry. You get a real nice dark finish looking like a aged rifle. Make sure you wipe down with a baking soda solution afterwards to neutralize the lye.

I've used the lye water treatment on the guns I've built for years. It is especially useful in bringing out the stripes on curly maple.
Lye dissolves the tannin which make wood look brown and floats it to the surface. With curly wood, it has better luck in doing this in the exposed end grain of the wood than it does on the wood grain that is running parallel with the surface resulting in much darker stripes.

As was mentioned above, baking soda is not the thing to use to neutralize the lye left behind from this process. You need an acid. I use straight vinegar.

While I'm on this subject, I've found that one coat of lye water applied in a "wet" coat does about all that can be done. Going thru the process more than once doesn't seem to make much difference in the outcome. Also, be sure to use a nylon bristled brush. The lye water will instantly cause hair bristles to fall apart.
Lye water will also dissolve your skin and your eyes so be sure to wear protective clothing. Even doing that isn't always enough. Many times while working with lye water sooner or later, some small speck of it gets on my skin. There's no denying the fact when suddenly it seems like some small area suddenly feels like it is on fire. The best defense against the lye eating your hide is to apply a generous amount of vinegar to the area.
Also, be sure to wear some sort of eye protection. By the time you splash vinegar into your eyes to counteract the effects of the lye water, it may have already damaged your eyeballs which can result in blindness.

While I'm on the subject, yes, lye water works very well on cherry but do NOT use it on walnut. There is already so much tannin in walnut that the wood is "naturally" dark brown. If you apply lye water to walnut the wood will turn black and wipe out any of the woods beautiful grain patterns.

Now, lets get back to talking about Shooting Flintlocks. That is what this area of the forum is for.
Folks wanting to discuss lye water treatments should do that in the Gun Builder's Bench area of the forum where we talk about building and fixing guns.

 

[PathfinderNC]

As an update, this rifle will be going to her new home in Mississippi soon! It was such an enjoyable build.
I will be making more now. I have ordered one more Colonial kit from Kibler and will be ordering a second on Monday (two to three month wait). Not sure if both will be Cherry Colonials like my first that just got bought, or a Colonial and a Southern Mountain... will decide by Monday!
Best wishes and thanks for everyone’s kind responses and comments!
- Bob