Interesting discovery while staining with aqua fortis.

[M Tornichio]

I am currently finishing up a squirrel rifle at the moment and was getting ready to stain the wood. I had two different solutions of Aqua fortis. 1 of them tends to turn the wood very dark and the other tends towards a lighter brown color most stock woods. Well I made a third by combining the two together. I did some test on scrap pieces of wood and I ended up with the exact same lighter brown color with all 3 test samples. I figured well this must be the color that this particular piece of wood is going to yield. I went ahead and stained the entire stock with the dark formula. Heated the wood up and noticed that there were a couple of very small areas that did not get enough stain on them and they basically did not stain at all. So I coated the entire stock again, but this time I used the stain that tends to just give a ligher brown color. Coated the entire stock and heated it up again. This time when I went to add oil to test the color. The rifle was nice brown with red undertones. I really like this color and have never been able to get it before. I don't know if this is common, but I thought I would share it with you guys. Might give you something else to try.

These are the pictures of the color that I achieved.

[westerner]

WOW!!

Beautiful!  Love it.

           Joe.

[JDK]

Great color and a beautiful piece of maple.  You should be very happy....I would.  Congrats, J.D.

[Dave R]

Architecture and workmanship  is great, Color exceptional and very nice wood!

Dave Reising

[LURCHWV@BJS]

WOW

   Mark that is one exceptional piece of wood.  The color is fantastic.


             Rich

[JB2]

just a question about the two different batches of AF.  Do you remember what made them different- age, mixture,  ferrous material used, etc.?

[Scott Semmel]

I am a hobby builder, not quite a gun a year. I use aqua fortis on stocks and on other projects, walking sticks and canes, so my experience is not nearly as rich as others. I have used it on Maple, sugar and red, Ash, Hickory, Walnut and "Japanese Cherry"(that is what Dixie claims it was). I am happy with the results but have come to the conclusion that for me, to misquote the great philosopher Forrest Gump, Aqua Fortis is like a box of Chocolates.
 My theory, and I reserve the right to be wrong,  is that there are three variables, the regent, the wood and the heat. At the present I'm thinking the wood and the amount of heat produce the greater variation. I'm thinking anyone with the knowledge to write a comprehensive work on the use of Aqua Fortis wood have a best seller in our little community.

[Bennypapa]

WOW! that is a fantastic color!!
PLEASE post pics of the final product so we all can enjoy.
Ben

[Darrin McDonal]

That is really, really nice. Beautiful actually. I use aqua fortis most of the time and realised that its not so much the AF but the wood that will give you / us the differances. Some turn out really dark some lighter etc. thats why doing the tests, as you know is very important. This was nailed home to me more so that ever last fall when I built the bonus raffle gun for the NMLRA. The stock wood they gave me was spalted maple. I dont know if any of you have used that type of maple but it was terrible to work. The AF turned out really dark. Darker than I wanted -but it is what it is. I wont use spalted maple ever again thats for sure.
Darrin

[M Tornichio]

Thanks for the comments. I will definitely post some pictures when I get it done. The difference between the two mixtures was that the first was Wahkon Bay aqua fortis. This was the very first batch that was made by Mike Lee. I noticed that it was very strong compared to the older formula. I had purchased a large bottle and just thin it out when I do test on wood. Well It typically goes very dark. The second batch was given to me from a friend. I believe it is just nitric and water and that has all the acid strength diluted out by etching metal. Each is good in it own right. Just depends on the wood.
And I agree with the box of chocolate comments. I seem to never know what I will get. I posted this just because it was so unexpected. Might give you guys something else to try.

[Gaeckle]

I am a hobby builder, not quite a gun a year. I use aqua fortis on stocks and on other projects, walking sticks and canes, so my experience is not nearly as rich as others. I have used it on Maple, sugar and red, Ash, Hickory, Walnut and "Japanese Cherry"(that is what Dixie claims it was). I am happy with the results but have come to the conclusion that for me, to misquote the great philosopher Forrest Gump, Aqua Fortis is like a box of Chocolates.
 My theory, and I reserve the right to be wrong,  is that there are three variables, the regent, the wood and the heat. At the present I'm thinking the wood and the amount of heat produce the greater variation. I'm thinking anyone with the knowledge to write a comprehensive work on the use of Aqua Fortis wood have a best seller in our little community.

I agree with this. Having used aqua fortis on many projects , each one is an adventure in itself and that is the exciting part of the build.....one really never knows what can spring forth from the wood...