Re-doing lock areas

Does anyone have any experience on re-doing an area of a completed rifle? It was stained with TOW aqua fortis and finished with BLO. I'd like to reshape my lock area a little but matching color may be a problem. If so, I'll not do it.

reddogge said:

Does anyone have any experience on re-doing an area of a completed rifle? It was stained with TOW aqua fortis and finished with BLO. I'd like to reshape my lock area a little but matching color may be a problem. If so, I'll not do it.

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It sounds like you’re trying to refinish the lock panel without refinishing the entire stock, probably not going to work very well, you can get away with refinishing small spots but not an entire pannel.

Maple can be tricky to match because it has little color to begin with. I’ve had better outcomes than I’d have predicted doing this kind of work though.

If you would have used Fiebing's leather dyes ,you would have no problems matching the finish.

Bone black........

Making minor changes to the stock around the lock and changing contours is very doable. Unless yours is currently a show piece and you want a perfect finish do as @oldwood and @The Appalachian said. If you take your time and add stain sparingly it will work. Use the bone black to blend the area and give a nice older look to it.

@TDM, not only Bone Black but I've found that Burnt Umber paint pigment also a useful color in conjunction with the bone black for aging a stock. Just mix the bone black or other pigment with TruOil to just tint it a little and apply with a oil painter's brush. When cured nock it back and blend it with 000 3M synthetic steel wool and apply again. Layers until the right depth and tone are achieved. Best done around anything metal and where the rifle would be handled a lot. Perfect for making this OP's project come out right.

I'll have to look it over more carefully. I may be getting into more trouble than it's worth. The gun isn't perfect anyway (are any of them?). I took the whole finish off of a rifle my dad partially did in the early 80s and his finish was very rough. I used cabinet scrapers and it came out really nice when sanded and stained with aqua fortis and finished with BLO.

You can do it. It will take some fiddling around but in the end you can match it. It is the same as restoration work.

@The Appalachian, I just ordered some Burnt Umber pigment. I’ll experiment with that and Bone black before my SMR gets here.

TDM said:

@The Appalachian, I just ordered some Burnt Umber pigment. I’ll experiment with that and Bone black before my SMR gets here.

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This one has both those pigments on it just as I described above.

I like that.