Tallbear,
Here is the link to the website of the alchemist.
http://thealchemist.us/index.htmlGo under the book section and you can purchase it there. Best money spent on understanding stains, their purpose, how to make and so on and so forth.
Bill Mende has also been an invaluable resource of info and has provided insight and clarification where needed.
Everyone one wants to ask why go through the trouble...FOR ME it's all in the process. It's just like hunting or fishing...its not what you have at the end (although that is great and neat to see the results or fruits of the labor), but its how I got there and what I learned.
Remember...we don't build these guns because we want to mass produce them..we build them because they are a representation of where we were and the ingenuity of our forefathers. So why try to deviate from that? Just my take.
M