staining cherry stocks

[smylee grouch]

I am working on a gun with a cherry stock and would like to darken it when finished, not alot but some. I have read where aquafortis will turn cherry almost black and i dont want that. My question is can you cut or dilute aquafortis by putting a small amount into water. Will this mix darken the wood less or would it still come out near black?     Gary

[Karl Kunkel]

I'm sure others will chime in.  Try lye or oven cleaner.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

The more typical chemical for staining/darkening/aging cherry, that was also used by fine furniture makers was Lye. You can use Red Devil or buy pure lyr from the Science Store online.  If you search on lye or staining cherry you will find a lot of threads and methods.
 Aquafortis seemed to overdo it in my opinion, unless you want a black cherry stock

[billd]

My own feelings on cherry is why stain such a beautiful wood.  You are trying to speed up nature's process, but it never comes out as good.

Two coats of EK real linseed oil, allow to dry completley then finish with either more of his oil or tung oil. Hang it on the wall in direct sun for a few weeks or all summer, rotating regularly, and you will have the richest natural deep red color you could ask for.

I just finished a cherry gun. When I strarted it last summer I put a piece of the scrap cut off the forearm, with just one coat of oil on it, on a window sill. I left it there all summer.  May be hard to believe but the up side compared to the down side does not even look like the same piece of wood.  I'll take a picture tomorrow if I'm home from work before dark.

Just my feelings.

Bill

[billd]

Here's the pictures taken with a flash, but the color came out pretty good. It's the same piece of wood, just opposite sides. It sat on my window sill for about three months. You can see how the side exposed to the sun darkened and mellowed naturally.  The light side has the same oil on it as the dark side, just not exposed to the sun.

[Michael]

Gary,

This is quite timely!!

I am just finishing up my copy of number 92 in RCA. I began the rifle in 2008 at WKU in Wallaces class on stock architecture The origional is stocked in cherry which has developed a very pleasing color and patina (in my opinion).  Like you I didn't want to stain the stock and get it too dark because I used a really nice piece of cherry with some great figure in the wood. I have one other rifle I made several year ago that is stocked in cherry and I stained it with a very dilute solution of aquafortis and it still came out too dark. I never tinkered around with lye or a lye solution.

I decide not to use any stain and I finished the stock with just beeswax heated and rubbed in the way that Gary Brumfield described in an earlier post on stock finishing. This is the first time I used beeswax as a finish and it really did a beautiful job on this stock! As Bill said left exposed to sunlight the stock will darken on its own and bring out the figue in the wood.

Michael

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Depends on the look you want in your stock.

This was done with lye. in the shade it looks like this:



In the sun it looks like this:

[smylee grouch]

So far you folks have given me several options and i plan on using some of them on leftovers from the same stock. I can start that now befor i complete the gun so should have examples to look at befor i do the real thing.  Thanks everyone for your imput.   Gary