Must one stain maple?

[Stophel]

I am a fan of unstained wood. Maple, if it is VERY curly, looks outstanding unstained, and tinted a nice golden brown with traditional brown varnish. If the wood is plain, it looks like manure. But then, it looks like manure if it is stained too.

I am about to start a gun that is to be stocked in a blank with very strong curl, and it looks great unstained and finished with brown varnish. :wink:

There are SOME old rifles that are unstained. Very few. The one that comes to mind is the "lion" Beck rifle that has had the comb cut down. One or two others that I can't think of at the moment.

This doesn't count all the unstained guns with red varnish.

 

[Ohioan]

The only maple rifle that I've seen unstained is the one that Homer Dangler displays at Friendship.
But, that wood is extremely non-typical. I don't think their is an inch of that stock that does not display curl, birdseye or flame.

Now, that WOOD is absolutely amazing. It's beautiful. But, the GUN just doesn't look right without a stain on it. At least something light.

I agree that Aqua Fortis is the best thing to show the grain. I made a batch this weekend and I am experimenting with it now. It's pretty light golden brown. I'm going to add some of Jim Kleins Reddish Brown stain to it to see how that helps.

So to answer you question in a concise manner, yes you must stain it.

 

[Stophel]

If you're using modern, colorless varnish on your unstained maple stock, I think it doesn't look good no matter how curly. I think it needs SOME kind of color added, and real linseed oil varnish is dark brown color, and will impart a fair amount of a nice golden brown sheen to unstained maple.

 

[djnye]

if those modern varnishes are polyeurethane-based they will yellow very quickly--1-2 years. linseed can be quite amber and looks delightful on the right piece of figured rock maple, but don't forget that linseed does oxidize and blacken over time--in this case a long time. tung oil isvery clear and remains so for a long time and i have carvings of birdseye and burl maple that are stunning and also very white and clear.

take care, daniel

 

[bob1961]

Nothing wrong with Bobs but a little stain makes the curl pop.

i'm sure when they cut the blank fer my stock they cut it 90 degrees to the curly grain, look at the bottom of my stock that i wish it was the side view....

the stain color was mahognay :v ............bob

....

 

[Roy]

I've had a couple blanks like that here, sort of a shame when that happens.