Operation "Artificial Curl" has begun!!

[LehighBrad]

After testing on some scrap pieces of maple I've decided to hand paint on the "curly maple" stripes onto the bare maple wood. They hardly bled out at all on the raw wood. Then I'll stain with LMF nut brown stain. The result is the look I'm after, at least on the scrap wood. No reason to think it'd be much different on the actual stock. The Feibings leather dye creates darker brown streaks than the nut brown stain giving, in my opinion, a nice appearance and from a few feet away looks A LOT like actual curly maple. I'll let the future pics do the talking and see what you guys think.

[billd]

Light beer is not PC.

[Jim Kibler]

Seems sort of weak to me.  Maybe darker stripes and a lighter more golden fill color.  Just my thoughts...

[WadePatton]

Light beer is not PC.

all i see is unstripe-d beer

[LehighBrad]

Yes Jim....the dye creates the darker striping and the LMF nut brown stain gives it the slightly lighter brown "fill in" coloring. And Wade....light beer keeps me as agile as a cat.

[Acer Saccharum]

Just make certain the gunstock is de-greased! The stripes may not take evenly in areas that have been handled a lot.

Lacquer thinner, 'Kleanwood", etc, nasty stuff do it outside.

[LehighBrad]

Operation "Artificial Curl" is in full swing!



Keep in mind, once the Chambers oil is rubbed in it'll look better....I hope.

[WadePatton]

mmm stripey. 

[Shreckmeister]

Light beer is not PC.

Yuengling. The only light beer fit for man.  Like the stripes

[Tom Currie]

Not sure about that lime green vise. I'de tone that thing down a bit. I do get the need for light beer though. Otherwise.......

I appreciate the effort to do the faux striping but for my money I'd just buy wood with curl already in it. That's just me.

[LehighBrad]

I whole heartedly agree Tom. But this rifle I built years ago, actually, it was my first build from a pre-carve. Thought I'd really butcher it so I opted for the cheapest grade of wood at the time. Now, if it ain't curly, I won't even consider buying it. I just figured I'd try to dress it up a bit, when I first built it I stained it with Minwax red mohagany. Looked like $#@*. Now I'll be able to at least look at it.

[WadePatton]

yeah, puts some stripes or pokkie dots on that vise.

would faux striping be appropriate for a trade gun?  (have i learnt anything yet?)

[Hungry Horse]

My method for putting stripes where God didn't, is to buy a 4" disposable paintbrush, ( preferably one with natural bristles) and cut out gaps in the bristles, up near the ferule. I also like to take an exacto knife, with a new blade, and shave the tips of the bristles, so they resemble a pin striping brush. I have found that shoe dye tends to change color, or fade in sunlight. The last couple of trade rifles I did were done with aquafortis, and then heated until the stripes turned almost black. I then neutralized the acid, with a baking soda solution, and did a final sanding after it dried ( it will whisker on some types of wood).
 You have to work pretty fast, because the acid will eat up the brush if you dilly dally.

                        Hungry Horse

[WadePatton]

Sweet, yes the parallelness has to help. 

Also noted a faux strip on the Ash-stocked rifle in the "TN features" thread.

did that vice come that color?

[Black Hand]

Operation "Artificial Curl" is in full swing!



Keep in mind, once the Chambers oil is rubbed in it'll look better....I hope.

Nice! 
My concerns are:
On a naturally stripe-y piece of wood, the lines don't always go top to bottom, nor are they so parallel or uniform.

[Shreckmeister]

I'm trying to understand.  Are you going for reproducing the faux striping done "in the day"
or do you just want to dress up the rifle to make it look like real curl?

[LehighBrad]

Actually.....I'm just trying to get a "somewhat" appearance of curl. I'm NOT trying to emulate any type of faux curl done by any number of past builders. Just doin' my own thang...as it were. And Wade.....the vise is a called a gun makers vise. Bought it from Woodcraft. I love it. Very adjustable. Although I was very dissappointed when I saw how dull its color was. I'm thinking of painting it flourecent orange.

[mike learn]

I like the effect so far.  Do you find the lines softening up a bit when you go over the entire stock with stain?

[LehighBrad]

Yes Mike....the lines do soften a bit. Especially if you wipe over them with a fresh dab of stain on the cloth. But, in my opinion, that only helps make it look a little more "real". I striped and stained up to the middle ram rod thimble so far. That's enough for one night. Tommorrow evening I'll finish up striping and staining to the nose cap. Like I said earlier, once some coats of oil are rubbed in, it'll give it some depth and improve the effect more. I'll post a pic of tonights progress.

[LehighBrad]

Tonights progress.

[LehighBrad]

Two cheapy pistols I "faked" the curl on years ago.

[Shreckmeister]

Well its turning out to look very nice. I think the process coudl result in a natural real looking curl if that were the goal. 

[LehighBrad]

Thanks Rob......the goal is not to fool....but to look cool.

[rjpalmer]

Very pleasing effect! You did a great job!

[WadePatton]

heck yeah, lookin' some hinky now.