A fellow "gun-clubber" is working on a Kibler "woodsrunner" in cherry. I saw the stock before he applied a finish and it was nice unfigured cherry, beautiful and simple. What I was not fond of was that he ordered an "upgrade" in what I feel is overdone cnc "carving". It has tons of "scrolls", lines and other features....but he liked it before the finish was applied and that mostly is all that mattered at that point. He did not say specifically say what finish he applied but he did say it was a recommendation of and purchased from the Kibler organization. After he applied the finish, and I was told he did it by a clean cloth wipe, it never seemed to dry, most specifically in the areas where it was "carved". I tend to feel that he got too much in the lines and depressions that gummed up. I saw it once after that and it looked really bad. SO, he decides to clean it all off using a very fine sand paper and picking it out of the carvings as best he could. I saw it again Sunday and he did a good job of removing almost all the finish, even from the problem areas. Now he seems to have another problem. The wood has a very unsightly brown-green color and it does not seem to be able to be sanded clean. It actually looks like old popular wood! A lot more sanding and he will see all the carving disappear! It actually looks as if there is a deep stain and it don't look good. So the question is does anyone have a suggestion on something that he might use to "bleach" the wood back to a more natural color? Also, what about trying to apply some stain at this point? I have used Min Wax Antique Oil on stocks and really like the way it finishes out. I gave him some and suggested he try it on a spot to see how it turns out.
If it were mine I would abandon the attempt at "cherry" and darken it up with a brownish stain then apply the finish.
