Coloring and Finishing a Hickory Ramrod?

[John C IND]

Greetings! I have been messing around trying to color and finish a new replacement ramrod for my antique  .28 caliber J.S.Burson halfstock rifle. I'm not real pleased with my results so far, so how do YOU do it?  As always, thanks for any and all advice, this is a great place to lurk... John C IND

[Dennis Glazener]

I probably have a strange way of doing mine but remember I build mostly southern mountain rifles. I soak the rr a couple of times with aqua fortis, let dry then take a propane torch and heat the rr until I get the color I want. Then while the rr is still hot I rub beeswax all over it. (yes it usually ends up with a lot of dark burnt spots on the rr, that's fine with me)

On fowler's and more upscale rifles I usually use some maple LMF stain on it and may add darker stain if I don't think its dark enough. Then I usually use the same finish on the rr as I used on the gun, most often Chambers oil finish.
Dennis

[gunmaker]

Tandy leather dye, Fiebling's alcohol based really works great on wood too--it doesn't know.  The dk. brn will give a slightly redish cast to the wood when BLO or something is rubbed in....Tom

[James Rogers]

Mostly I just use nitric and a heat gun. After I have mostly turned it, I will slather on a bunch of hardware linseed oil and heat again to even out the color.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I also use Ferric Nitrate to stain the hickory, and it comes out very close in colour to the maple stock wood.  I polish the stained rod again with 0000 steel wool, and then rub TreWax into the rod.  When it is dry - 45 seconds maybe - I burnish it with a soft clean cloth.  Done.

I find LMF stains come off on the hands, especially from the ramrod.  I'm using my supply up now staining leather - not wood.  Fiebing's leather dye gives nice colours in leather and wood, but it is UV sensitive, and fades... but not on every stock.  Interesting stuff.

[Hawken62_flint]

Do mine mostly like Dennis, using Aquafortis and a propane torch--then rub it down with steel wool and linseed while it is still warm, rubbing it back to the color that I want. 

[John C IND]

What's a good source for aquafortis? Local and chain drugstores don' seem to be able to order nitric acid...

[moleeyes36]

What's a good source for aquafortis? Local and chain drugstores don' seem to be able to order nitric acid...

It's available from some of the mail order suppliers.  Track of the Wolf sells it as does Muzzle Loader Builders Supply and I'm sure it's available from several other suppliers as well.

[Dale Campbell]

I color the rod with black powder fouling. Looks great, easy to come by. Then finish to protect both the rod and the bore. It's subtle, and doesn't draw the eye away from the rifle itself.

[Don Getz]

I like the ramrod to be lighter in color than the stock.   I use any of the normal stock stains, then rub it down with 0000 steel
wool, then apply a good wax.   As for using fiebings leather dye, I built a copy of a Joe Long rifle back in 1975, and stained it
with Fiebings.  It looked great at the time but you should see it now, real light in color.  I  would love to re-do the finish but
it has all those inlays, fish out along the barrel, fancy brass over the comb, etc., just can't waste all that time to remove all of
that old finish............Don

[Herb]

Don, that Fiebings dye will probably go right through your finish.  Here is a fullstock flint Hawken that Neill made, using "some kind of acid" for the stain.  His finish is linseed oil.  Randy had that rifle about 6 years, kept inside and never shot, and the color faded to the natural maple color, looked like white pine.  Randy asked me to refinish it, and the thought of sanding all that finish off was not pleasant.  I tried some leather dye in the barrel channel and found it went right through the finish.  So I applied the dye over the whole rifle, let it dry, and then put some kind of finish over that.  This might work for you.

[gunmaker]

Must be the wood then.  as far as leather dye goes...I nave a rifle here stained 12 yr. back (maple),  it's  seen lots a shoots/hunts--still looks good....Tom

[Michigan Flinter]

I use aquafortis and if I want to change the color any more I have differant colors of Homer Danglers stain to add to get what looks good to me.

[David R. Pennington]

When I started no one had aqua fortis. I was convinced I had to have it so I bought a bottle of nitric acid from a commercial chemical supply house. They had to see my business license before they would sell it to me. I made my own stain with 3 parts distilled water to 1 part acid with iron filings and steel wool dissolved in it. You really have to be careful as the pure acid is nasty stuff. I haven't found any thing I like better yet for stain on maple. Hickory is hard to stain. I do like Dennis and just keep up with the aqua fortis and heat till I get what I want. I haven't tried the store bought aqua fortis. I just made me up a new batch a while back and still have enough acid for a couple more batches yet.