Stock stained with acid....

geraldbergeron

geraldbergeron

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Hi everybody,

I just bought a nice hexagonal Withworth; I think that this stock was acid stained. The stock is probably a cherry wood.

I took off some scratches with boiling water (many many times) and the wood came out straight with a 600 paper sanding paper.

Now those retouched patches are "at wood"

Problem:

I tried to stain those parts with oak dark: no way, no stain would penetrate those parts !!

I use alcool to take off all dirt,...

I know that the stokc was:
1- acid stained
2- Circa oil 3 to 6 times
3- Antiquax for the finish

I was thinking to apply some Aquafortis to those patch.

Any advice would be greatly welcome.

Thank you.

Etienne Brule
 
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My suspicion is that you need to strip the whole stock to get the colour uniform. I also think that even nitric would only penetrate minimally plus you have the worries about neutralizing the acid afterwards. The other traditional nitric stain was steel wool dissolved in nitric acid and when all of the acid was used up, the stain is wiped on the wood and heated followed by a very very light sanding.
The bottom line however is that the outer several thousandths of an inch of wood are saturated with wood finish even though you have sanded through the finish itself.

cheers mooncoon
 
geraldbergeron said:
So what would do to correct this problem... ??
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Seems like a lot of work and hopefully there is no checkering to worry about, but I think you need to strip the whole stock to bare wood with around 100 to 150 grit paper so that you get through the finish layer then stain and oil or varnish as suits your fancy. I personally would probably not go beyond 200 or 300 grit paper for final sanding but I also prefer oil finishes and a sort of satin texture.
I sort of get the feeling that you might have been better off to have left the scratches :>( I take it the gun is a Parker Hale percussion Whitworth?

cheers mooncoon
 
mooncoon said:
...
I sort of get the feeling that you might have been better off to have left the scratches
...
cheers mooncoon
Click to expand...

That is more and more my feelings... grrrr...

mooncoon said:
...
I take it the gun is a Parker Hale percussion Whitworth?

cheers mooncoon
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The gun is a 45 hexagonal barrel Parker Hale Whitworth ...

Thank you for the attention and your time.

Gerald
 
I have had good success touching up guns using laurel mountain forge stains from TOW. I believe these are glycol based stains and they penetrate very deep. I generally use a stripper (trying to avoid sanding as much as possible) to remove the finish on the spot I am working on, steam/sand the offending marks, color match and try and blend the repair over a larger area then the original spot of the repair. I then apply whatever sealant that will match the rest of the gun. I have never tried this on a gun with a high gloss finish and don't know if it would be as easy to blend the repair. Most have turned out so well that they are virtually invisible to anyone but me.

Cheers
 
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Based on the price of original Whitworth Rifles, I would suggest going to great pains to restore the rifle in the correct manner, it might even be better to leave it as is.
 
sail32 said:
Based on the price of original Whitworth Rifles, I would suggest going to great pains to restore the rifle in the correct manner, it might even be better to leave it as is.
Click to expand...

This gun is a replica of the original Whitworth made by Parker Hale in England and supposedly very faithful to the originals. Even so they are still a fairly pricey gun

cheers mooncoon
 
OUF... Bingo !!

I finally succeeeded to make the partial touches without goeing through the process for the whole stock.

For those who may be interested:

I had three spots of 4 x 4 . Those spots where on the wood and NO stain (glycol based nor water based) could penetrate those parts...



AQUAFORTIS :

1 sanded those spots with a No 200 paper.
2- put some of AQUAFORTIS on those parts, goeing a bit outside the spots.
3- wait about 5 minutes
4- put the fire of a lighter to make Aquafortis become darker
5- some lightly rubbing with steelwool 00
6- rub with some cotton ( to be sure that no steelwool was left )
7- wait 5 minutes

CHERRY STAIN :

8- Cherry stain on the spots
9- wait 5 minutes
10- use of a candle to get some "suie" on the spots
11- some lightly rubbing with steelwool 00

CIRCA OIL :

12- Circa Oil; a light layer rubbed with fingers.
13- use of a candle to get some "suie" again if necessary
14- some lightly rubbing with steelwool 00
15- repeat 12, 13 and 14 to the wished tones..

Then light layer of oil every hour x six times.

Nobody could see the difference.

What troubles for trying to correct some light scratches!!!

But now, I know how to work with those acid stained stocks... They are SO nice...

Thank you everybody for your kind support.

Gerald bergeron.
 
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