Aqua Fortis on hickory?

[Eric Krewson]

I made a new ramrod from a blank today, turns out the blank is curley hickory with very tight curl and as dense as any hickory I have ever had in my hand, it won't take stain worth a hoot and I want it dark. Brown leather dye comes out light tan on this wood even with lots of coats,

Anyone put aqua fortis on hickory? I have some but don't know how it will turn out and hate to end up with something really odd looking.

[tallbear]

Eric

I stain all my ramrods with aqua fortis which makes a nice pleasing brown,although not real dark.If your using Whakon Bay or Tracks Aqua fortis they might make it darker.

Mitch Yates

[alyce-james]

Eric; Sir, I started using "Whakon Bay" and Tracks "Aqua Fortis" in the mid to late 1970's for all my ram rods. Today I use Tracks "Aqua Fortis" and I'm able to obtain the rich dark color you may be looking for your ram rods. Good luck. AJ.

[Eric Krewson]

I have a bunch of hickory dowels that were turned to be ramrods but had too much runout.

I just got back from the shop after trying my Whakon Bay aqua fortis on a piece of one of the dowels. I dried and blushed at the same time and came out with a rich brown but not too dark. I applied another coat and the color didn't change after blushing. I could have rushed things too much.

I guess I answered my own question, the scrap piece didn't look bad so I gave the ramrod a coat and will let it dry naturally before I blush it to see how it comes out.

[smylee grouch]

I diluted the aquafortis and then applied coat after coat untill I got the darker brown that I wanted. I had some diluted stuff from a different job so thats why I did it that way.

[bama]

Af will turn Hickory very dark if you heat it enough. When I stripe a RR I wrap it with electrical tape in a spiral then apply the AF in the open space of the spiraled tape, let it set for about 10 minutes and apply heat from a heat gun. If you apply heat until the tape starts to curl the AF will turn the stripe almost black. When I do a whole RR I continue the heat until I get the darkness I want over the whole Rod.

[L. Akers]

I don't apply heat to my ramrods anymore.  Too many of them turned into corkscrews.

[Eric Krewson]

I am a primitive archery guy, I can straighten out almost any shaft with heat and the shank of a screwdriver.

[Daryl]

Eric - what about India Ink?

[Eric Krewson]

Jim was right, lots of heat turned my ramrod as dark as I wanted it to be.

I used a piece of aluminum angle that I heat arrow shafts and bow staves in to heat the ramrod. This way I can get even heat all the way around an object.



The ramrod did turn into a bit of a pretzel but I straightened it back out with heat.

[bama]

Glad it worked out for you. I guess I have been lucky, I have never had a RR warp when I heated it to blush AF. I do try not to concentrait my heat in one spot but move the eat gun over a 6 to 8" section of rod  and keep the gun moving along the rod, maybe that's the secret.

[davec2]

Eric,

On an English rifle I finished not long ago, I wanted a hickory ram rod to look like ebony.  I treated the rod with a solution of tannic acid (gallic acid also works) and then used the standard AF / Iron nitrate solution, blushed with heat.  It will make the ram rod deep black.  By varying the tannic acid concentration, you can get differing shades of dark brown to black.  (Same process Jim Kibler explained on his blog for treating his beautiful fowler burl stock).