I'm a very long way from being ready to finish my rifle, but I've been thinking about finishes and experimenting a little. I used TOTW Aqua Fortis to stain some scrap maple (not from the stock) to get a sense of how it works (surprisingly easy!) and then I stained the vise block of my precarve stock. It's pretty, but especially on the sections of maple with little figure, the effect is still very light.
I like a dark finish, and like the browns emphasized a little more than the reds:
https://www.jimkibler.net/rifle-9.htmlhttps://www.allenmartinrifles.net/gallery-of-guns/bucks-county-gun/I know that I'm at the mercy of the stock wood, and I also recognize that, because of inconsistent curl in my stock, I'm going to have it lighter in parts, because a lot of curl darkens the overall effect. Mine only has that in stretches.
Here are some ideas I had for more overall darkness, that I'd like your thoughts on:
1. More applications of Aqua Fortis (I did two on the pieces shown).
2. More coats of oil finish (I used 4 in the photos).
3. A different oil finish (I used boiled linseed oil on 1 scrap side and on the stock, and BC Tru-Oil on the other side of the scrap. Tru-Oil seems slightly browner and darker, but I'm not sure. I'm open to other ideas).
4. Dyes - I was hoping to avoid these, as I understand that they can fade.
5. Kibler's Nitric Acid - does it darken the whole effect, or just increase the contrast?
6. Kibler's bone black - it seems like this would increase the aged effect, like on Allen Martin's rifles.
2 applications of AF, 4 coats of BLO on both stock and scrap:
![](https://i.imgur.com/9dMzXmO.jpg)
2 applications of AF, 4 coats of Tru-Oil on scrap:
![](https://i.imgur.com/vzTMpji.jpg)