Hi,
I finished up the carving and did final scraping and clean up before stain. It is very important to shine a single source light on the stock at low angles to show up the rough spots and imperfections. This is critical with light colored woods like maple and cherry. You will always find spots that you thought were fine that still have rough areas or depressions and scratches. I used 220 grit sandpaper, a carpet scraper blade and scary sharp skew chisels to clean up. I also added a few decorative details to highlight some features and fill in other blank spaces. I added a double line border to the fore arm along with 3 dots, a bit like the wire inlay around the patch box. I added a cross hatched area at the base of the rear ramrod pipe tang, and a few decorative "V" shaped notches here and there.
I also tested stains on some scrap curly maple. The last task was to use my flat checkering single cutter and small "V" chisels to go around the edges of the carving and cut very slight incising. That will make the carving pop. Also, I fully expect that I will go back after staining and find a few places needing clean up. I'll clean them up, touch up the stain and then go on to the finish. One disadvantage to the Kibler kit is you don't have any scrap wood from the stock to test stains. You can use the barrel channel or the inside of the patch box cavity but it is not the same as having a large piece of stock to work with. I have a lot of good hard curly maple scraps and decided to use those realizing that the Kibler stock may perform slightly differently, slightly I hope.
I mostly use ferric nitrate crystals purchased online from the Science Company and dissolved in water as my stain for maple. This creates the same chemical solution as what most of you know as "aqua fortis". Actually, aqua fortis is simply the ancient name for nitric acid (loud water) but most of you think of it as a stain made from iron dissolved in the acid. Ferric nitrate and water create the same liquid but with much less acidity and it usually works great on woods such as maple and birch. I used a weak solution of 1 part ferric nitrate crystals to 12 parts water by volume. However on test wood it was not as orangey red as I wanted. I wanted to boost the red without significantly darkening the color, which tends to happen if I simply increase the concentration of ferric nitrate. What works in that case is I add a few squirts of 10% nitric acid solution (purchased with no problems online from the Science Company) to the ferric nitrate stain and a little bit of steel wool. I let it sit overnight and paint the stock the next day. This usually gives me a redder color but does not darken the browns that much. I am not sure why it works differently than simply increasing the concentration of ferric nitrate but it does. I paint the stock with the stain, let it dry thoroughly, and then blush it with a heat gun. The stain dries to an ugly gray color but when blushed with a heat gun or propane torch, it turns a nice reddish brown. After blushing, I neutralize the acid by painting the stock with lye mixed in water. This not only neutralizes the acidity but turns the color more reddish.
The result was almost there but I wanted still a little more orangey red. So I mixed a weak stain from recorcin brown, scarlet, and orange aniline dyes dissolved in water. I tested it on scrap wood and finally got exactly what I wanted. Subsequently I painted the stock. I think it is going to look really good.
I will inspect the stock closely, then put the gun together again to make sure everything fits as it should, then take it apart and put finish on . I may wait a few days until we have warm dry weather so I can put the stock outside in the sun.
dave
