• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Leather dye for stock staining ?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kyron4

50 Cal.
Joined
Dec 25, 2021
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
2,103
Location
Indiana
Trying to get a good even coat of stain on a Traditions Beech stock. Tried the Birchwood Casey Walnut (waterbased) and didn't care for the color and had an uneven dark/light look to it. Tried the minwax oil based in dark walnut and got a good shade before finishing but most of the stain came off when applying the finish . I've read about the Fiebing leather dye in med brown being a good choice. Any pictures of a cheap beech stock done using the dye ? Methods of use ? Can it be removed if results are unsatisfactory ? -Thanks
 
Kyron,
Have used Fiebings on maple, ..dark brown, an dit worked very well. Use it more for blending in repairs , and it works well.
Make it a bit darker colour than you want, as it bleeds out a bit if oil finishing.
It was Ron Ehlert first told me of using this dye. Ron was one of the top makers in the US. He had a personal flint rifle, walnut stocked, and the figure was missing to some degree on one side, so he added it with this leather dye. No-one would ever have known!
 
Here's a storage box I used Fiebings Med Brown alcohol-based dye on. I'm not sure about the type of wood but it will give you an idea of the color. The wood didn't absorb the dye as well as leather and I had to wipe it down with mineral spirits to get the excess off.
IMGP1109.JPG
IMGP1110.JPG
IMGP1111.JPG
 
I have used it on quite a few guns that had beech or birch stocks. It works quite well and will penetrate where other stains will not. After a heavy coat the wood will have a green tint to it. I then wipe it back with a rag soaked in isopropanol until it is the color I want then apply finish. I rather like how it turns out and it certainly looks a lot better than plain white wood.
 
I like to mix a little russet to the brown leather dye to give the wood that very slight reddish color everyone seems to like.

Have used it on all sorts of stuff, guns knife handles etc. etc. I put it in a cheap plastic spray bottle, spray it on and wipe it off and let dry before handling.
 
Trying to get a good even coat of stain on a Traditions Beech stock. Tried the Birchwood Casey Walnut (waterbased) and didn't care for the color and had an uneven dark/light look to it. Tried the minwax oil based in dark walnut and got a good shade before finishing but most of the stain came off when applying the finish . I've read about the Fiebing leather dye in med brown being a good choice. Any pictures of a cheap beech stock done using the dye ? Methods of use ? Can it be removed if results are unsatisfactory ? -Thanks
Here's some information about fiebings dye that may be of interest (and I just learned) fiebings "Pro" dye is alcohol based and takes as long as 24 hrs to dry. Fiebings Dye (also known as institutional dye) is water based and dries in minutes. This will affect your finish coats.
 
I just used quick dry water-based polyurethane. It's not something I'd use on a stock but it's just a storage box.
I also did a box in Aqua-Fotis just to see the difference I can post a photo if you're interested.
 
Last edited:
I did this beech stock in Fiebings medium brown.
 

Attachments

  • 06ABE6AA-ECBB-4310-814C-DCB509E9524C.jpeg
    06ABE6AA-ECBB-4310-814C-DCB509E9524C.jpeg
    75.5 KB · Views: 40
  • FCAA45F8-3B0F-4929-91CB-42AC788B44BA.jpeg
    FCAA45F8-3B0F-4929-91CB-42AC788B44BA.jpeg
    67.2 KB · Views: 27
  • FE72ADFC-542C-41E2-B641-4FC8C62FCB06.jpeg
    FE72ADFC-542C-41E2-B641-4FC8C62FCB06.jpeg
    57.2 KB · Views: 26
And I did this one about a half hour ago. It’s maple but I mixed a couple drops of black feibings dye with the medium brown and it gives it a little more depth.
good luck. Beech doesn’t stain that well, but I think it looks ok with the fiebings
 

Attachments

  • BC2615A8-DC1F-4E0B-BE32-34E12AE0D7AA.jpeg
    BC2615A8-DC1F-4E0B-BE32-34E12AE0D7AA.jpeg
    65.8 KB · Views: 32
  • 3ACC6275-DA15-41E8-AD8B-BBF6EA934D05.jpeg
    3ACC6275-DA15-41E8-AD8B-BBF6EA934D05.jpeg
    53.9 KB · Views: 37
This Bess stock is beech and was done with feibings med brown, and some yellow food dye as a base. It came out pretty good
 

Attachments

  • 769B9F4C-403E-4A48-AFF7-26A992053302.jpeg
    769B9F4C-403E-4A48-AFF7-26A992053302.jpeg
    66.3 KB · Views: 41
  • CB85681B-926E-4737-9C3C-74994753514C.jpeg
    CB85681B-926E-4737-9C3C-74994753514C.jpeg
    82 KB · Views: 31
  • 863E78FF-4806-4AA8-AAE1-3F5D3B817B38.jpeg
    863E78FF-4806-4AA8-AAE1-3F5D3B817B38.jpeg
    78.1 KB · Views: 39
I’ve used Tandy’s EcoFlo dyes on a couple of guns now with good results. I mix scarlet with timber brown 50/50, and after 1 coat of that, I do a couple more of the brown with just a little black mixed in. Then a couple coats of tung oil over the top. This is my Hawken.
Jay
 

Attachments

  • F05BF354-1CFF-4424-BCA7-9968A3A66C5D.jpeg
    F05BF354-1CFF-4424-BCA7-9968A3A66C5D.jpeg
    92.4 KB · Views: 33
  • 00989428-4435-4170-9B11-7B7471D9D8C2.jpeg
    00989428-4435-4170-9B11-7B7471D9D8C2.jpeg
    89.8 KB · Views: 42
I’ve used Tandy’s EcoFlo dyes on a couple of guns now with good results. I mix scarlet with timber brown 50/50, and after 1 coat of that, I do a couple more of the brown with just a little black mixed in. Then a couple coats of tung oil over the top. This is my Hawken.
Jay

That's what I am talking about! The little bit of red really looks good in my opinion.
 
Been using Fiebings alcohol dyes for 50 years. I like to copy the colors of original guns , and leather dye is the only way I can do it. I started out using chemicals like the "experts " in the gun building say to do. If you like dark stain , , or stain that covers over figure in the wood being colored , and even stain that over time fades out to yellow/green ,use chemical stains. Once you learn to use alcohol stains , all of a sudden you discover a whole different range of colors available by changing the % of color to alcohol. The depth of figure , is controlled by applying black leather dye first. For soft wood , cut the intensity of the black with 90% alcohol. IE , on white /soft , but curly maple , 25% straight black dye , is all needed to enhance the figure , curl , etc.. For curly figure found in hard maple , a higher % of black dye can be used ,up to 50% black for the hardest maple and again , less for softer maple. Next for the color . The color can be applied over the black. Original Pa. longrifles were orangish /black , tanish / black , redish /black. The most amazing original Jaeger rifle I've heldin my hands , was stained a pale see through, green color , on a hard white birdseye figure wood , with 3mm sized blue , red and green colored flowers painted on it. Any alcohol stain is applied with a heat gun / hair dryer , to dry it immediately , then OOOO grade steel wool to dewhisker the wood. Another feature of using alcohol stain is using heat to dry the wood is fast. Once the desired coloration is reached , the first coat of sealer can be applied. no wasting time waiting for an oil stain to dry. I hope someony out there can be helped by this.............oldwood :thumb:
 
Back
Top