What Zonie said. You can use darkened oil finishes, like dark Watco oil or different shades of Minwax, but it's going to make the outside of the finish more opaque, and obscure the natural wood grain. Might not look too bad with a stock made from plain wood, but for nice curly maple, it would be a sin (in my opinion) to hide that figure. I am guilty of doing just that to a nice piece of curly maple on a plains rifle I built years ago. I wanted the finish to be a little darker, so I used a dark watco oil, but the stripes just kind of blended away. I have plans to someday refinish it so the stripes will once again "POP", so I am not without sin. :idunno: Bill