doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Birds eye maple guns stock

I filed down and sanded a stock to fit me. This is fairly good restock done by an amateur but left way to high. I got the files and sandpaper out and part of the stock is now raw wood while the rest was stripped leaving the dark birds eye areas and some color. The color of the stock originally is what I would call Golden Oak Minwax color in the trades.

I can sand down the rest of the color if need be to raw wood. I do not know what process is used to bring out the birds eye effect. Do I use a stain like Minwax which could be blended or is there a special treatment that is needed.

Anyone with experience with this to guide me would be appreciated. I don't want to take a chance and put the stain on and have to sand it off if it does not work correctly.

Thanks in advance,
Milt

In my antique business days a colleague used the very stain you mentioned to bring out the curl in curly maple furniture. I should work for you as well.

I have had some success with mixing a small amount of Walnut in with the golden oak stain as well. Get a small sampld piece of scrap to experiment on first.

Just my 2 cents

Regards, Gordon

Mornin' Builder;
This is gonna sound nuts, but pretty sure I remember reading somewhere about how the maple stock guys used a propane torch to bring out and highlight the figure, and used a heat sheild to keep from scorching the sharp edges ??? Bet there are plenty of folks around here who can tell you how to do it. In the meantime, I will go root through some old books, and try to find it.
Have a good one;
Bill

I know it is sacreligeous but this was done (not by me) on a superposed with an under 10,000 serial number with the double single trigger. Funny thing is that it is skeet gun or at least choked skeet and skeet according to the markings (measure .08 and .09 choking) so there is no diffence in which trigger you pull anyway. The price was right and it looked like a fun gun.

More advice would be appreciated regarding the finishing.

In the dark past I used chromic acid to stain curly and birds eye maple. Rub the stock dead smooth with 0000 steel wool and wipe it down with dilute chromic acid. You them rub it out again using the cutting action to control the color. In the 70's it was the method of choice in the PA rifle builders circles.
bill

I just purchased a used Brownell's Gunsmith Kinks from 1981.

There are two excerpts in there.

1) Beautifying curly maple:

While experimenting I discovered that your Resorcin Brown Stain does almost as good a job as the "Suigi" method (burning the grain with a torch) on curly maple. It brings out the curl much faster, easier and safer than any method used so far.. For a GOOD job, whisker the stock with a fairly strong water solution of Resorcin Brown instead of plain water at least five times, dry the stock well with an electric heater after each application and before sandpapering. Apply a coat of Lin Speed (or Tru Oil).

2) Staining Stocks By Fuming

Maple, sycamore, and some other blond woods are ideal for rifle stocks so far as strength, texture, etc., are concerned. But not many people like light-colored stocks; and staining the wood is never too satisfactory. So to get the rich, mellow tone that normally only comes when the thing is 8 - 10 years old - fume it.

Maple and other blond woods contain little, if any, tanic acid, but tea does. So to fume blond woods, simply use a black tea as strong as you can to raise the grain instead of using water. Then, put it in a box that is airtight as you can make it with masking tape or the like, insert a saucer of ammonia.

At the end of three or four days your stock will be nicely aged to a beautiful golden brown, much as it would in ten years normal exposure to the atmosphere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've never tried either, so this is just an excerpt from a book. Not sure if the fuming would just mellow the wood or also bring out the birdseyes too. Obviously the first excerpt continues to validate what other suggest on the staining.

Hope this helps.

The fuming technique is a pretty traditional British technique for darkening oak (lots of tannins in oak). I was told by a Brit-trained architect that they used to bury oak timbers and boards in piles of manure (lots of ammonia produced by the manure) until they got the color they wanted. I have tried fuming small pieces in a sealed container with liquid ammonia, and it does work, but it's slow. A quicker method to get to a similar color is to brush or wipe a solution of potassium permanganate on the wood, then wipe with water to stabilize the color. I have used this on oak cabinets with good results, and it gives a color that I cannot duplicate with stain. There is a lot of literature on this technique, and a Google search will turn up info on potassium permanganate and potassium dichromate for darkening tannic woods.

Another maple coloring technique calls for the application of dilute nitric acid ("aqua fortis")followed by heat, such as holding the stock over a gas burner. The wood becomes "greenish" and then brown. Repeated applications darken the wood further and eventually can turn the wood a brownish black. This technique was often used by the old Pennsylvania rifle makers. At one time. pre-mixed "aqua fortis" stain was commercially available but it does not seem to be, now.

Not to hijack the thread, but for better and faster results fuming skip the household ammonia and go to the blueprint and drafting supply. Ask for some 26 degree ammonia. Gives beautiful results in 24 hrs.