Hey Jim,
Heck no I didn’t take offense when you suggested throwing the Accraglas away, so don’t let that trouble you at all. You are definitely right that it is much easier to squeeze out equal amounts of Micro Bed to get the volume/ratio correct on mixing vs Accraglas. I just wanted to make the point that Micro Bed is too dark for some lighter to medium colored stocks, so that it sticks out.
As to coloring Accraglas with the dye. Yes, if one squeezes out most of the dye even from one of the tiny packets mentioned above, it will come out as dark as Micro Bed. The secret to getting a lighter color is to use a tiny amount like on the end of a tooth pick or the way I do it on the end of a small Jeweler’s Screw Driver. Just the tiniest smidgeon will color even a small batch to look like maple that is not very dark. Mix that thoroughly into the compound and then add tiny amounts like that at a time to get it as dark as you want. If one wants it as dark as Micro Bed, then it is easy to put that much dye in, but one can get much lighter shades with Accraglas when using tiny amounts of dye.
Most of the time I dye Accraglas to match the wood is for filling in holes in walnut stocks, though one time I used it on my old 1970’s vintage Pedersoli Brown Bess Carbine after I shattered the wrist area. Not sure if they used English/European Walnut on that stock or something else, but it was very light in color. Even though I had most of the pieces that came off, there were a few small voids. Since British Brown Besses were not normally stained darker, I wanted to keep the real light color and the only darkening then came from the oil used on it. Using the tiniest amount of Accraglas dye allowed me to match the wood color so well, even I had a hard time seeing where the voids were filled before I added the oil finish.
As you know, walnut can range from a very light almost off white color to a fairly dark milk chocolate color. If you add tiny amounts a time and “sneak up” on the color you want, it is possible to get a very close match to the color of the stock throughout most of the color range.
BTW, it was Johnson’s Paste Wax in the Yellow Can I wound up having to use as Mold Release when we ran out of Ram 225 and I had to do two NM M14’s FAST to take to the NRA Convention years ago. At the last minute, our Colonel decided he wanted to NM M14’s that we could take apart and show people how we glass bedded them and how we cleaned them up, since he got so many requests for that and even from top NRA folks. He also ordered the bedding and clean up be perfect, so it would not embarrass us. That Paste Wax released one action perfectly, but failed miserably on the second and cracked the stock badly. On both rifles, I was EXTREMELY careful to ensure the metal surfaces had been properly coated with it, yet on the second stock it was a disaster. Fortunately as I was routing out another stock to replace it, we got new Ram Mold Release 225 in that afternoon and I was able to use that and finish the second rifle for the NRA Convention that year. SURE was happy in came in on time for me to use the real Mold Release on the second rifle. Oh, BOY, was I happy!! Grin.
Gus
