Maple Stock Staining

[frogwalking]

I am approaching the time to stain my Early York.  I have treated the wood patchbox cover with aqua fortis as  planned.   The color is coming out the same as the last one I made, which is to say, a moderate golden brown color, not at all unpleasant, but this rifle stock does not have the figure the last one had, although it has some, it also will be carved.  I wanted a darker color with red tones.  The af is  not going to take me there. 

What are your suggestions?

[E.vonAschwege]

I'd say since you've already stained your PB cover with aquafortis, continue that same process on the rest of the gun.  You might be surprised at little hints of figure that emerge when fully stained.  After staining, if you're looking for more browns or reds, dilute some LMF dyes with alcohol and do a mild wash over the whole stock with them.  The aquafortis delivers a beautiful base upon which you can tweak the final color with dyes. 
-Eric

[rich pierce]

More AQF applications can make it darker. Treatment with hydrogen peroxide can redden the AQF color if too brown.

[Acer Saccharum]

Now, this is just speaking to hydrogen peroxide.

This stock was stained with VINEGAR-IRON stain, not Aqua Fortis, to a dark brown. I did a peroxide wash, and OMG, it went orange. I had to vinegar stain three or more applications to get it to darken. In the end it was very pleasing to me.



With chemical stains there is not a lot of predictability. With dyes, much more so.

I, however, like the acid-iron stains. They are 100%light-fast.

[Ed Wenger]

You can also get a little more of a red tint by coloring what ever varnish you'll be using.  Chamber's oil has a natural red tint and is an excellent finish.

Anymore, I use my home brewed AQF for just about every project.  I don't "test" it to see what I'll end up with, it is what it is.  I've gone round and round with stains of all types and keep coming back to AQF.  It doesn't tend to wash out detail like a lot of stains, and to me, just looks "right".

      Ed