Stain color?

Ok, like I said, I'm going to give the Laurel Mountain Forge Ebony Toner a try. Once I've got the desired shade I want, what do you all suggest as a finish? I don't want a glossy finish so, what product to get a satin finish?

If you want a satin finish, buy a finish that says satin on the can. Poly. Tung. Etc. Do not buy gloss. Do not buy semi-gloss.

I would cut the product 50/50 with a thinner of your choosing. Brush it on heavy and let the wood drink it up until it can't drink anymore. Let it sit for an hour. Then start wiping it down. You will see the finish ooze out of the pores. Wipe it down. More ooze. More wipe. Repeat until there's no more ooze. Let dry for a few days.

Then pour into your hand a quarter size pool of uncut finish. Drizzle it all over both hands. Then rub that finish into the wood. Rub hard. You will feel heat building up. That's a good sign. Stretch that finish out as much as possible. If you feel like your hands are running out of finish add a couple of VERY SMALL drops to your hand and keep rubbing. The trick is to have no finish on your hands when you're done. And just have the thinnest of coat on the stock.

This process will give a satin finish without it looking like you slathered it on with a rag or a brush. Nothing looks worse than a gunstock that has brush strokes in it.

The more coats, the more it will begin to shine. Personally, I do a soaking wet coat and only one, maybe two, hand rubbed coats. No more. I hate shine.

Good luck.

DemBart, from Brownell's, is a finish for use on checkered stocks. Consequently you have to do lots of coats to build it up. But if you do it right, you will get a most beautiful finish.

You have wet and sand and repeat and repeat with water until the grain no longer raises. Then, apply the finish liberally using your finger, rubbing it in until it just begins to get a tiny bit sticky. It will take a while to do the whole stock, but not too horribly long. Do that again in a day or two. Next, wet-sand with 600 grit. Let it dry. Add another coat, then dry, then wet sand with the 600 grit. Do that as long as you want - you will know when the stock is finished to your satisfaction. I love the stuff - takes a bit of time, but in the final finish that's where the time really pays off.

I learned to use the stuff from Ron Scott in Corvallis - I am presuming he still uses it, it is sure good enough for me!

Just curious, has anyone tried applying the iron nitrate and heat converting it first and then applying tannic acid?

SlidePicker said:

Just curious, has anyone tried applying the iron nitrate and heat converting it first and then applying tannic acid?

Click to expand...

Hi,
I doubt it because the purpose of the tannic acid is to add tannin to the wood so that when ferric nitrate is applied it brings out any figure in the wood more vividly and darker.

dave

Exactly. My hypothesis is that it will react slowly and incompletely as it dries out, not turning to the inky blue-black of the tannin reacting with the dissolved ferric ions. Tannic acid will convert rust to a black coating with prolonged soaking, though. Something trappers have used for a long time. Well, if no one has tried it, I will when I boil down the bag of walnut hulls I collected in the fall and let you know.

dave_person said:

Hi,
I doubt it because the purpose of the tannic acid is to add tannin to the wood so that when ferric nitrate is applied it brings out any figure in the wood more vividly and darker.

dave

Click to expand...

The tannic and nitrate together form a compound when heated so no.
I have considered dillution,but never tried it. Instead my control is abraiding.

Tannic acid and phosphoric acid are the two principal "rust converters." Browsing around, there's lots of stuff online about tannic acid solution, cold, turning rust into a black film. People using walnut hull dye caution that rust in a pot will turn the solution black. Trappers have long treated traps with various sorts of tannic solutions. So I think it will react. Might end up much the same as the standard method. Might be a little different, Might turn out to be a useful alternative. My interest in it is that both heat converted ferric nitrate and walnut hull dye are useful brown stains. But used together, they turn to a black stain. I'm curious about how it would work the other way, that's all. Combining the tannic acid with the dissolved ferric ions before heating it to convert the ferric nitrate to ferric oxide may well give different results than previously converting the ferric nitrate to ferric oxide (rust), then applying cold tannic acid in a solution that soon evaporates.

When you test this, start a new thread and take pictures please.

SlidePicker said:

Tannic acid and phosphoric acid are the two principal "rust converters." Browsing around, there's lots of stuff online about tannic acid solution, cold, turning rust into a black film. People using walnut hull dye caution that rust in a pot will turn the solution black. Trappers have long treated traps with various sorts of tannic solutions. So I think it will react. Might end up much the same as the standard method. Might be a little different, Might turn out to be a useful alternative. My interest in it is that both heat converted ferric nitrate and walnut hull dye are useful brown stains. But used together, they turn to a black stain. I'm curious about how it would work the other way, that's all. Combining the tannic acid with the dissolved ferric ions before heating it to convert the ferric nitrate to ferric oxide may well give different results than previously converting the ferric nitrate to ferric oxide (rust), then applying cold tannic acid in a solution that soon evaporates.

Click to expand...

Keep track take pics make a chart!
Thanks

Good ideas on stain.

On military guns, I'd use a combination of R. Gale Lock Co. dark walnut and Chestnut Ridge military dark walnut stain. Both are alcohol based and easy to manage. They gave a dark reddish brown color to stocks which I found more appealing than black.