I have a Kibler SMR on order, with a custom walnut stock I bought. I've been using with Alkanet "red oil" on the last few guns I've refinished with walnut. I wanted to try some things on a never before finished walnut blank. The camera doesn't show the correct color as real life, but it's close.
I used blue painters tape to partition the wood.
Alkanet staining treatment, 1/3 of the wood each from left to right:
In Boiled Linseed only - In Mineral Spirits first, then in Boiled Linseed - In Mineral spirits only.
My process is to use 3 coats of the alkenet ground root infused for about a year in mineral spirits. This on the two panels in the middle and right. I can say there is very little darkening or staining, as you can see where the blue tape was removed later.
Then I moved to the center panel, and started with the alkenet root infused in boiled linseed oil for about a year. I also did the fresh wood on the far left panel. I did about 3 or 4 coats, no sanding in between coats, let it soak in about 12-24 hrs each coat. The center with both alkanet in mineral spirits followed by it in linseed was no darker than the left panel, just with it in linseed. I'll skip the mineral spirits type next time.
When dry, I taped off the upper half of all panels. Then I began finishing upper half using Chambers Oil. The upper left is almost fully filled grain, middle upper are minor grain filling, and right was no grain filling. The upper left is what I'll be going for. It took about 6-8 coats before the grain was almost filled, but I now learned a faster technique for next time.
