Black spray paint

[Pete G.]

I have seen where some builders will use black spray paint to help create a patina on their stock. I am planning a blacksmith built gun and it seems that would be an appropriate place to try that type of finish.

I have a few questions before I dive off into this.

How heavily is it applied, a light mist or like you are painting the stock?

Is it applied over stain and finish and then polished off with steel wool, with or without a solvent?

Is it applied before final finish and then coats of finish added over it?

FWIW I generally use A/F for stain and Tung oil finish (if that matters any).

[wattlebuster]

Well Mike Brooks we are waiting

[Mike Brooks]

Rustoleum flat black or forget it. Completely  finish the gun then cover it with paint. Steel wool back to your liking. I apply one or several coats of paste wax after that. That will be $5 please.....

[Angus]

Thanks for the tip Mike. The check is in the mail, just keep watchin for it to arrive in your box. Should be any day now....
Does it help to wet sand the paint to make a slurry for open pore woods?

[Mike Brooks]

Thanks for the tip Mike. The check is in the mail, just keep watchin for it to arrive in your box. Should be any day now....
Does it help to wet sand the paint to make a slurry for open pore woods?

Beats me..... That will be another $5.

[Nate McKenzie]

Mike, I really miss your gun building tutorial on the web! Any chance of putting it here?

[Dennis Glazener]

Nate,
It's been here on ALR for a good while. Here is the link http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=31173.0
Dennis

[Nate McKenzie]

Thanks Dennis.  I was looking for his name in the second column, not yours. I feel like an old friend is back even though it never left.

[WKevinD]

Should Nate send the $5.00 to Mike or Dennis?

[Dennis Glazener]

No one gets the $5 since no one has paid Mike $5 fee to reveal his secret sanding slurry directions

[PPatch]

No one gets the $5 since no one has paid Mike $5 fee to reveal his secret sanding slurry directions

Drat. So, Dennis - at one time you had a customer wanting a really black stock on a gun. What happened with that? How did you finally get your black?

dave

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
Please don't take this badly but I hope folks appreciate the fact that Mike probably took the risks, and then jumped in and experimented to develop his method in order to provide something unique to his clients. Imagine, finish a gun and then paint it black?  How many have that courage, curiosity, and brilliance to even conceive of the idea.  For those wanting to use Mike's method, he did all the work to figure it out and you are benefiting from his hard work.  Maybe you guys ought to just go do it and figure it out yourself.  Mike deserves to keep his secrets.  I freely share with all of you what I learn, but I am not trying to make a living from this work like Mike.  I am just an amateur.

dave

[Joe S.]

and with that,its now $10.00

[Dennis Glazener]

No one gets the $5 since no one has paid Mike $5 fee to reveal his secret sanding slurry directions

Drat. So, Dennis - at one time you had a customer wanting a really black stock on a gun. What happened with that? How did you finally get your black?

dave

Patch,
I had hoped everyone had forgotten about that project! The Fiberling black shoe dye was a disaster! I ended up keeping that rifle for myself (didn't have a Gillespie that I made for myself). I will work on the coloring later, might try the black paint approach. I will make some photos of it later, it seems to have a plastic look to it, nothing I did to it seemed to help. I started another for the customer but my surgery stalled that one. I can assure you Fiberling dye will not be used on that one!
Dennis

[Mike Brooks]

I didn't hide anything, the method I described above is what I do., pretty simple really, if it wasn't I couldn't have figured it out. If I were going for a black finish I'd use several coats of aquafortis and not kill it, it will go as black as the ace of spades.
 Ian Pratt just made a black gun with red florals painted on it...over on the contemporary makers blog. What he used I don't know.
 I taught for several years at Conner Prairie and have always given up information freely. Sometimes I wonder if that is smart as several of my former students are now 'In the business".

I have been dabbling with different techniques using annalyne dyes, but it;s more akin to water color painting and is too time consuming to be efficient enough for me to make a living at. It is however very convincing. I'll probably use it more after I retire from full time work.

[axelp]

I would think a convincing black "grunge" patina would need to be on top of the finish (thats how the originals get that way right?). Mike's process makes 100% sense to me.

On the flip side, I am just a novice with little experience, but I refinished a Lyman GPR a few years back and I think the wood at least turned out really nice (gun was sold and I don't have pics, sorry). It was a relatively open grain walnut.

Instead of going all out with a grunge patina, I simply used black india ink to fill the grain right before the whiskering and burnishing. I used a walnut stain first, let it dry, then I slathered the ink on, an it made the gun look gray like a black and white photo. Then when it was only partially dry (because I got nervous lol), I rubbed it back with the whisker/burnish process, so that it only darkened the pores. Its still looked very flat and dull until I applied the finish, The colors of the wood came out and looked very rich and convincing to me.