Gunstock staining, advice needed
- Thread starter yorgi
- Start date
This is similar to Lye stain, usually a craftsman's remedy to birch, maple, beech, and in some cases cherry in uniforming colours/shades. It's easier than you might think. The lye "burns" the wood in degrees, dictated by the # of spoonfulls per cup of water and the # of coats. Years ago I did a lie dye on a Mossberg Birch stock that a cabinetmaker swore was Cherry. It's really easy to duplicate Cherry tones in Birch and Maple.
Before I panic and sand it all down try wet sanding with a bit of your stain over the light spots to see if you can encourage them to take a little more stain. You've nothing to lose at this point and if it works it could easily. Use full strength stain and just give the sandpaper short strokes with the grain to rub it into the wood.
With a bit of luck you should be able to fade in a little more color and make it all look reasonable.
I always found that the darker I want to make the wood the worse it is to get an even stain job shy of just dumping on lots and mostly covering the grain. I hate to say it but if you wanted walnut color you should have started with walnut. Stained birch is always going to look like stained birch. Now I like birch. But I would not have chosen it if the goal was to make it try to look like fake walnut. That's just too far of a journey for the stain to do that evenly.
But trying to carefully wet sand the lighter spots might make it blend fairly well.
With a bit of luck you should be able to fade in a little more color and make it all look reasonable.
I always found that the darker I want to make the wood the worse it is to get an even stain job shy of just dumping on lots and mostly covering the grain. I hate to say it but if you wanted walnut color you should have started with walnut. Stained birch is always going to look like stained birch. Now I like birch. But I would not have chosen it if the goal was to make it try to look like fake walnut. That's just too far of a journey for the stain to do that evenly.
But trying to carefully wet sand the lighter spots might make it blend fairly well.
Thanks BCRider, I might just do that at a later time. To be honest, I spent so much time trying to make it functional that the mere thought of spending more time on it now (to correct the looks) makes me shiver in disgust...
I will promptly walk-away from it, use it for this upcoming deer season and then come back to it as a fall/winter project. Thanks for your advice.
A buddy gave me a single-shot 12GA missing the stock, that's what I'll be working on next, great platform to use the different types of dyes some other members recommended.
I will promptly walk-away from it, use it for this upcoming deer season and then come back to it as a fall/winter project. Thanks for your advice.
A buddy gave me a single-shot 12GA missing the stock, that's what I'll be working on next, great platform to use the different types of dyes some other members recommended.
