doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Gunstock Staining

Folks often ask me, “How do you get those stock so red? They look like the old ones”
This is a short course on how-to. Forgive me for being brief, I am trying share some info yet make a living and I quit doing How-to’s years ago cause I never could get in all of the detail.


The stock is filled with Daly’s ProFin and rottenstone, probably has 8-10 coats, wet sanded with water as lube, 320-400-600. Wet sanding with water leaves that washed out look. Very careful to sand down to the wood without leaving any finish on the surface. Stain will not penetrate with finish on the surface, that is why I don’t wet sand with stock finish. (Method adapted from Mark Silver & Monte Mandarino in Prof. Stockmaking by Wesbrook)


When pores are filled, as nearly completely as you determine, and uniformly wet sanded to remove surface finish it is cleaned with a wipe of mineral spirits. Stain bottle shown in photo (Behlen American Walnut #B503-6A235) with proprietary solvent, other solvents won’t work. Swabbed on with shoe dauber with cottom rag in other hand for blending, must blend as you go. Second coat and subsequent touch-up is blended with rag until all is uniform. Forend was darker than butt, so mixed lighter tone and stained to match.

Stained stock must be allowed to sit and fully evaporate, a few hours, before applying finish. It will go through another transformation with the top-coats of final finish,
I’ll ad some more info and pix of stock with top-coats after a bit, maybe tomorrow.


Questions?

Thanks mr. Steve, you're a great guy to share your secrets ! I have a new stock that is a tad lighter than I'd like & know that there is a saving grace for it now. Will be using your method. ken

Mr. Hughes:

Good stuff. Thanks.

What action is that?

Glenn

I'm just listening and learning - but of course all that stuff isn't available this side of the pond... :-(

Thanks again Steve;
Always enjoy your posts and photography - Have learned much from them, and appreciate your taking the time to do so.
Bill

Steve,
thanks for the details! That's great. I will have a highwall to do this winter and I think I will try this. It is a good candidate for it as the wood is very similar to what you show on this rifle.

Will you wet sand the top coats with finish over the stain? Or will you stick with water. I woud think that any further sanding, whether water or finish based is rather tricky after staining to say the least.

Thanks again,
Brent

Thanks much guys, sometimes I think I'm nuts for posting, it's really great to know it's worthwhile! Sure wish there was a magazine interested?!?
The action is a much modified medium Hagn with an integral octagon brl by Ralf Martini in .280. Wood is Cal. English in my preferred plainish, well colored quarter-sawn with good layout and straight grain forend. I call ths "between the wars wood" as it is more closely akin than what we often see today.
One thing I never see mentioned, using two-piece wood I very seldom know if the forend is from even from the same tree as the butt, so I have collected a couple dozen forend blanks, seasoned them and often pick from the stash to match a butt for layout and color. (I insist on straight grain most 1/4 saw in the forend even if it sacrifices a perfect match.) Sometimes one is darker or lighter so this staining helps to match, we shall see very shortly. The top-coats tell all.

As you can see, I'm not a linseed and alkenit kind of guy. Fine for those who want to fuss with the long time-table and archaic processes. I'm tempeted to top-coat with linseed because I've got a good fill, this is probably not going to be an outdoor type rifle and Michael's influence via photos here and last years retro show in Reno. Will probably use Daly's Ben Matte, Danish Oil Finish (Natural Tung Oil Finish) for a bit higher gloss, and harder,more durable and water resist finish.
I'll decide in the next hour or so...
No sanding at all after stain applied Brent, top-coat must go on as nearly perfectly s possible. Linseed would be rubbed in, BenMatte wet & wipe.
Thanks again,
Steve

Steve, Thanks for taking the time to do this, I do know your trying to make a living at the same time . Maybe over time we can attract more craftsman that will share. I'm sure if the old time gunmakers were alive today they would be using a finish much like you and other contemporary makers use. 99% of any staining or finish I do has to match the color and patina of the original maker. I have had several folks tell me that Tom Shelhamer stained his stock with the red dye that's used in farming gas. I now have some of this but have not had the time to experiment at any length with it. I believe that you could stain your whole house with one drop of the stuff.

Steve, please believe that your help and words of guidance are greatly appreciated. I too wish that some magazine would appreciate these sorts of articles enough to offer reasonable terms, I'd certainly like to see more of the same from you and others. The National Champion Shooting Hero (no need to be coy, Roy....er, Glenn!) has just informed me that he'll be teaching a single-shot metalsmithing class at Trinidad this summer and I'd sure like to see some of that as well!
Regards, Joe

Gert I bet the mail service could get some of this stuff to you.Whitey