doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com How do you age a Silvers pad?

This has been on about three years. From time to time I have used some petroleum jelly and even tried a little raw linseed oil but still looks new.

I've read a lot of different ways on the net, most are, for lack of a better word, scarey like lighting them on-fire ;-).

rounding the edges would help that pad out a bunch. When I want to add age to something the first thing I attempt to color it with is lamp black. That combined with a linseed/tru-oil etc would be at least where I would start.

Orange shellac,,even color it further w/alcohol based dye. Use it thinned out considerably. Full strength is too thick. Apply with a small pad like a cleaning patch.
A few quick coats to the rubber and then rub in some further highlight color in certain areas you want darker.
Lampblack is the standby but charcoal dust works well.
I still have a small container of copier toner from a long time ago. Black as black can be and fine as dust.
Rub into those areas and then go back over carefully with another light once over coat of the shellac or your fav stock finish works well too at this point.
Once dry, rub down to bring out high wear areas to your liking and leave the darker and the darkest as is.

You can singe the edges & surface with a torch carefully if you want the really aged blackened, cracked, sat in the closet look.
It helps to do it with linseed being brushed onto the surface, but it's touchy work and can go too far real quick. Then it just looks like an other rifle pad in need of replacement,,or worse.

I'd round the edges too. Looks a little California at the toe.

I wipe the pad down with Howard's Wood Finish [DARK WALNUT] after a light sanding with the very finest grit. Then let it sit for a week. Looks authentic.

Another method. First, put about a 150 grit paper on your vibrating sander and knock those edges down and round them, especially the toe. Next, evenly smear a little mineral oil on the pad and then rub it with a piece of newspaper. The ink will come off and give an aged look.

Will any of these methods cause it to leave a smudge later, say on a white t-shirt?

Mine won't unless you were to rub it like an eraser, then any method would leave a stain including a truly old pad. I have one [a pad] from the mid twenties [that's pretty old and authentically aged] on an Alvin Linden that stains cotton museum gloves when handled for a while. HTH Jerry

I like to use dirt. It's cheap and it works.

I have used dirty crankcase oil, well rubbed, just to try it. However, some of my red pads aged by themselves. I always finish my edges square in case I want to face them with leather. Also, square edges don't slide off your shoulder.

Those square corners may not slide off your shoulder, but they also don't slide onto it. I'd round them just to get the rifle to shoulder smoothly. I have an Evans double 16 that had a pad with edges like that until I fixed them. Many pheasants have since complained.

Brent