Faux Stripes

[Shooter]

Could someone explain the process of applying "faux tiger stripes" to a stock. Stain,brushes,technique, etc. I am thinking of getting a Traditions Hawken kit (fits my budget) and want to dress it up. Have not put togther a kit before and I think this would be a good place to start. I like the Leman Trade Rifle at www.trackofthewolf.com  but it's beyound my budget. Thanks.

[hatchetdan]

The way i did it was to trim a 1.5 inch brush , removing an eight inch of bristles, skip an eighth, then trim again, repeating across the brush, so when your done you have little fingers of brush, like your fingers on your hand. this allows you to paint multiple stripes with each stroke, this was how lehman did it. Use a base stain of light brown leather dye, then paint stripes with dark brown stain, practice first!

[Sean]

See this link for a detailed description by Jack Brooks who spent a lot of time researching these guns some years back:

http://www.jsbrookslongrifles.com/theclassroom.htm

Sean

[Shooter]

Thanks Hatchetdan.By base stain you mean the entire stock,correct? Where do I find that dye? Could I substitute a light maple? The dark stain..like an oak stain off the shelf at my local hardware store? Min Wax comes to mind.When I look at tiger striping I see that not all the stripes are equal..so I will vary the thickness of the brush "fingers" a little. Does that make sense? 

[Shooter]

Thanks Sean. Great Info. Nitric acid...hmmmm.Now where do I find that!This is going to be fun!

[hatchetdan]

The leather shops carry feibings dye , its alchohol base, yes stain the whole stock, you can dilute it with alcohol, try a test piece first.

[projeeper]

i remember seeing this done on PBS a few years ago if you check their archives you may luck out.they used nitric acid with iron filings and a propane torch

[Sean]

Shooter,

Search this board or the archives of the old board for Aqua Fortis.  You'll turn up a lot of info.  You can buy it pre-made from Track of the Wolf, although I hear its plenty strong and could be cut a little with water.

Sean

[B Shipman]

shooter, obviously you want to keep it simple. Original Lemans and others were done with a Nitric acid stain to create a red brown background and the strips were painted on with permanent black ink quickly done with a brush with interupted bristles. Maybe 4 stripes at a time. You can do a good job by going to a shoe repair store and getting Feibings dark brown a little diluted for the base color and some Feibings black for the strips.

My best job at this was a Dreppard ( Lancaster 1830-40 )with the base done with Ditchburn stain (reddish alcohol based stain) followed by brushed on Feibings dark brown with a tidbit of black mixed in.

[Habu]

Whatever way you go, practice first.  Get some scrap maple (or whatever your stock is made of) and practice your staining technique, and your striping technique.  If nothing else, visit a local cabinet shop and get some scrap maple to practice on.  Good luck!

[docwhite]

I have had better results- colors that match real tiger stripe- by using dark brown permanant ink rather than black. Be careful not to use too much in the brush, the stuff is thin and runs easily. Since its permanant, the run is permanant too DOC

[Herb]

For those who don't know him,  Doc White was the creator (I guess) and owner of the old Green River Rifle Works, and later White Muzzleloaders.  A few years ago I asked him to stamp the barrel of a Bridger Hawken I had built from parts with his GRRW stamp, "S Hawken  St Louis".  ( I stamped my name, address and date on the bottom flat of the barrel).  I asked him how many rifles he had built, the kind he sells on Track of the Wolf's site.  He said, "Oh, a couple of thousand."

[B Shipman]

DOC, anytime you decide to make rifle barrels again, I'm interested.