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Red Oak Stain

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kd8jgu

36 Cal.
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Location
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Has any of you used this on a stock.
If so do you have a pic of finished stock?
I am gett ready to start a new build.
Seen this stain like the color but would love to see it finished out.
Thanks
 
Googling Red Oak Stain shows a couple of brands listing that color.

Unfortunately, they are oil based stains which I personally do not recommend for any gun stock.

Oil based stains often will not actually stain the wood as dark as is desired. The problem is the color is in a finish and once the wood has become oil soaked it won't accept any more to make the final stock darker.

While these oil based "finishes" may be OK for book shelves and cabinets IMO they seldom give good results on a gun stock.

Perhaps someone else on the forum will have a gun finished with this to show?

Oh, I suggest using alcohol based stains that have been thinned with denatured alcohol.
The alcohol rapidly evaporates without saturating the wood so one can apply as many coats as they want until the "right" color is achieved.

Different colors can be applied over previously applied colors and an almost endless number of colors can be made.

I used American Walnut and Mahogany on this beech shotgun stock.
CVA-SHOTGUN-003web.jpg
 
Zonie,
What were the brands and the % of each did you use?

THAT, SIR is one stunning finish!! I am in awe of the colour.

Cheers, DonK
 
I use oil based Minwax stains exclusively. Use what you know!
Anyway the first photo is Minwax Red Oak on walnut.

IMG_2062-1.jpg


This photo is Minwax Walnut stain on walnut.

IMG_1973.jpg


This is Minwax Mahogany stain on walnut.

IMG_1988.jpg


I believe stains even out the color in walnut but it is what you want that matters. You can make it darker, even though it is oil based, by tinting your tung oil finish. Try it and see what you think.
 
Ebiggs thank you
I do like the red oak.
That is what I will be using.
Now to go pick up the rest of the supplies and wait for kit to get here.
 
Depends on the wood. You can get away with that on Walnut. It's already dark, and the oil in the Minwax just darkens it a bit. If you try it on maple, you are going to be one unhappy camper, and after that, not much else will fix it.
 
100% agree with Zonie. Oil-based stains bad for light colored hardwoods. Water-based stains OK but they raise the grain and cause a lot of extra work. Alcohol-based stains are the best. Available at major on-line woodworking suppliers.

Buy your stain at Home Depot and your project will look like you bought it at Home Depot.

KG7E
 
I used Behlen "Solar-Lux" stains on the shotgun.

I usually thin them before using them but in this case, I used both of the stains at full strength.

The stocks on the old CVA kits were made out of Beech which is a blond wood that is notorious for being difficult to stain.

I was going by memory before but officially the colors used were "American Walnut" and "Medium Brown Mahogany" with two coats of the Walnut and one coat of the Mahogany.

I did not use a lye water pre-stain treatment because I did not want to increase the contrast in the woods grain.
Beech has very hard, small blond crescents that do not want to accept stains and a lye water treatement would increase the contrast between these crescents and the adjacent wood.

I was surprised by the amount of stain the crescents absorbed and although they are still lighter than the rest of the surface they blend in pretty nicely.
 
TRH said:
Depends on the wood. You can get away with that on Walnut. It's already dark, and the oil in the Minwax just darkens it a bit. If you try it on maple, you are going to be one unhappy camper, and after that, not much else will fix it.

Heed these words. If you're using maple, don't use oil based stains. It will look like you smeared motor oil on it. Bill
 
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