Hi,
Over the years I have used many methods and products for staining guns. Water-based, xylol-based, alcohol-based, water-acid, alcohol-acid, etc. For maple, I narrowed down my choices to ferric nitrate and water or aniline dyes and water. Ferric nitrate and water is basically aqua fortis and iron. It is an acid in water, oxidizes the wood and in that process inserts iron oxide into the wood fiber. It does a very good job bringing out figure in maple, never fades and produces authentic colors. By using the ferric nitrate powder dissolved in water rather than commercially prepared aqua fortis solutions, you have better control of color because you can control the concentration very closely. You have even greater control of color with aniline dyes, however, the trade-off is that the dyes will fade in UV light over time. I've stained many guns with aniline dyes over 30 years and experienced slight color fading on one gun but then none of my guns sit out unshaded in bright sunlight for very many hours at a time. Years ago, I bought dry aniline dyes from Brownell's in basic colors: scarlet, orange, yellow, brown, and black. By mixing those basic colors in water I can produce any desired shade and color I could possibly want for wood. I do not like alcohol or other fast drying stains and dyes because they dry too fast and I cannot even out the color as easily as I can with water-based dyes or stains. Moreover, I had a terrible experience with LMF stains on a very hard piece of maple. The stains would not penetrate the hard areas because they dried too fast. I tried thinning the stuff with LMF reducer hoping it would dry more slowly and soak in but that only allowed the color to migrate into the corners of carving and low spots producing very uneven coloring. Then they inhibited any further staining to even out the color. I just had to scrape off the whole mess and start over.
Finally, Wyoduster, I choose ferric nitrate and water (essentially aqua fortis and iron) when I want to produce an authentic color because my objective is a gun that appears historically correct. However, it produces what I call "monotonic" colors. That means the contrasting colors are all different shades of the same reddish brown. On guns for which I am not restricted by historical coloring, I try to bring out the maximum beauty in figured maple by layering different colors. Often, I start with a base of ferric nitrate and then layer on yellow, orange, or brown aniline dye on top. When you look at that wood, you see a rainbow of color layers that looks deep like cat's eyes (chatoyancy). It all depends on my objectives.
dave
