I have seen threads here talking about painting stocks. Might be to dress up poor wood or to repair the looks of a damaged area. I have a small spot on a stock I’m working on that I would like to try something like this on. It is a bark inclusion that I have filled and looks pretty good but would like to try and improve it. Is what I am wondering is what paint is used to do this type of repair? Seems like most paint would lay on top the wood and am thinking this would be tough to deal with.
Thanks

rwarren,
I may be wrong( I often am), but I think that when this type work is done to improve the grain, stains that penetrate are used, rather than a paint.
Mike

Both techniques can be used.

It is not paint but pigment added to finish. The finish must be an on top of the wood finish, not an oil finish. Start with Pro-custom and powdered pigments from your artist supply in a multitude of colors.

You may enjoy checking out Mark Larson's website: <https://www.marklarsongunart.com/>

...Geo

All of the above can be used. Depends on what the job is,,the wood,, the repair if any. What finish is already on the wood, what is going over it. .
Stain can be used especially solvent based stains to enhance grain and add to it.
A repair in the wood will usually still show with the use of just a stain. It's just natural that the different piece of wood and any glue line no matter how careful the repair will accept any stain differently than the base wood around it.

Color in the finish, toned finish I guess it called, works very well in some instances where the colors co-operate with you.

Paint can be used but the application is the key. Very light coats,,an air brush is often used to advantage and it's ability to feather the edges of the color layers is not to be overlooked.

Brush application techniques are something to be learned along with the ultra thin coats.
I've settled on using acrylic paints. They dry fast and can be applied so thin that one will show thru others to create the needed look.
It's not just a couple of colors mixed and applied and that's it.

When completed, the color repair needs to be 'fixed' with a durable transparent overcoating. This can be toned with a colorant as well to comply with the final finish if needed..
Then the real finish is applied over than to match the rest of the stock. Or perhaps the entire stock is being refinished along with the repair(s).

Here's Win21 that needed the stock refinished but had a missing piece of wood by the frame.
The orig repair was a glob of fiberglas.
I fitted a new piece of walnut and fiberglassed it into place. Fitted close but the 'glass still shows at a couple spots along the glue lines.
No matter, the epoxy is strong and hard and won't flex like a resin glue line so the repair won't show.
The wood doesn't need to match in color or grain as it is being sealed over first,,then painted to mimic the color and grain of the orig wood,,then 'fixed' with another sealer,,then the final finish.

The slight foggy look to the repair is the final coloring done, but no fix applied. That will brighten and match the color area with the rest of the surrounding wood. Then the final finish applied to the entire stock/
That final look I unfortunately can not find the pic of. But you can get the idea I think.

This is only one way to do this.
Like most everything else in this business,,there are many ways to the end result. Techniques vary and what ever works for you to get those results is the path to take.
It takes a lot of experimentation, time & effort,,, failed efforts.


Stock with a repair piece epoxied into place, shaped and sanded. I think I had applied a sealer at this point.


Building up the color and the look of the grain with the acrylic paint. Brush techniques are used to get the right looks. No Airbrush used, just cheap artists brushes. I clip them to different shapes and lengths to give different effects.


Coloring (painting) pretty much completed. It gets a very light going over with 0000 steel wool after a complete drying for a day or so.
That will blend the edges of the coloring into the natural wood grain/uncolored areas well.
Then the very light coating of 'fixer'.
I apply that with a brush.
It can be anything from thinned shellac (orange or white) to a wiping varnish, ect.
Something that drys hard and fairly quick. Nothing with a linseed oil in it as I have found that will start to soften the acrylic colors, mix and blurr them.
It can be used over the fixed coating however as the colors are then protected.

Well that's the way I fix up repairs in wood. But like I said there's lots of ways to do it and results are what count.
There are some artists that can make a piece of appliance crate wood look like a blank of English thats suitable for a Purdey.

Kutter-very nice write-up. Thanks again for your input. Check your pms.

Thanks everyone.
Kutter, that’s an amazing repair! This is a new stock that showed no issues when I started shaping it but as I got down close to the finished surface I ran into this bark inclusion. I filled it and it isn’t really all that bad, just looks like a solid knot, but thought it might be nice to camouflage it a bit more. The wood has just one coat of red oil, made with blo, on it. It will be finished with an oil but not blo. The acrylic paint you use? Is it artists paint you get from an art store? Thanks for a very nice writeup.

Thanks for another great post Kutter.

The traditional paint used by stock makers to hide all sorts of filling and blemishes is Artist's Oil paint. I have found the following colours cover all my needs by mixing, Ivory Black, Vandyke Brown, Burnt Umber< Vermilion, most of the pigments in these oil paints are Earth co lours so very stable. You can purchase a large number of additives to speed up drying and making the paint translucent or very thick from a good Art suppler, this type of traditional artist colours mix well with oil based stock finishes or just Linseed oil. Acrylic paints in the same colours can dry much faster and some can be added to Alcohol to make a fast drying stain.

Kutter great job on a 21. Bobby

That's a super narrative , Kutter. The pictures help much, too. I have a job to do almost exactly like that on a Remington hammergun that had a bad chip lost right behind the upper tang. I let in a piece of walnut like you did, then re=inletted the rear of the tang into it. Now, it needs coloring. I guess I'm fortunate that I've removed all finish from the wood, and will be redoing the entire buttstock and forend. All I'll have to do is blend the two pieces into each other, then apply finish over all at the same time.

Your post will be a great help. Thanks.

That is a awesome repair.

The acrylic paint I happen to use is simple artist supply store stuff. Comes in a tube. By any other name I guess it'd just be called water colors.
The Earth Colors that Damascus talks about are the main ones I use,,,raw and burnt Sienna and Umber along with Black. Those will get you about any natural color or tone needed by mixing them.

Start with the lightest shade you see in the orig wood that you want to match and then build the look of the wood and grain on the repair towards the final darkest tones and grain lines.
Don't try and do the job in just a couple coats. This isn't like painting a tool shed.

Sent you a PM.

Thanks kutter and damascus. Stanton, it would be nice to see your progress.

I'll begin taking some pics so we can do that. 👍

How’s it coming along?

Oh, I haven't even started it yet. I probably won't do anything much in the gunshop until the weather cools off some. My a/c unit died, and I've been so busy on the farm I haven't taken the time to get a new one. Fall will be here soon, and I'll do some early morning tinkering in there.

Just what I figured....

This is a gun from my own collection I purchased it at a farm sale in the early 60 s. You will be able to see that the comb nose has been repaired because of a Buba repair. This repair was my first attempt to replace missing wood but keep the old dark age finish. Looking at it now I was able to do better after a few more years had passed, it has stood the test of time and use and that is what it is all about. It was not a hard thing to do so you cant make things worse if you are careful also I am very surprised that the Epoxy has held things together all this time because it was Araldite's first market offering.

Lest you get complacent about being wrong all the time, this was my last attempt at color matching stock wood. Not the same thing as making a repair match, but it still takes an eye for matching color I guess.

http://forum.foxcollectors.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7229

SRH

Looks nice Sanford who did you steal the pictures from ?