Matching stains for gunstock repair

[H Wally]

I'm refurbishing some rifles and need some advice on wood staining.

The rifle I have is stocked with some nice, very dark walnut. It has had linseed oil routinely rubbed into it since 1915, and more than some dirt as well.

I ended up having to do a repair using birch, as I had three weeks of repair time in the middle of no-where, and no other hardwoods available.

So, to get birch as dark as walnut, which brand of stain would you recommend? I've always just used whatever is on hand, but this project is pretty in depth so I'd like to do it right, and have heard some stains are better than others. I'm likely going to linseed oil the whole finished stock as well, as I've had luck with blending colours when the new wood won't quite darken enough.

 

[billybob]

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[BCRider]

The key here is the mix and match to achieve the right color. There's no magic "use Minwax #124" answer to this. The final color will be a purely artistic mix of stains and maybe even some coffee grounds (just kidding!) to get the final colour. Especially since the oil finish along with years of handling will have produced its own colour and wear spots that defies a simple answer.

Having matched some chair seats to the uppers that had been "treated" to years of use, black paint, white paint and then stripped and oiled one time I suggest you look through the years of grime and aged oil to see if you can find the base colour to match the birch to. Stain it lightly with what you figure is the right colour to match the original walnut using the transparent dye style stain and then use some dark brown pigmented stain and maybe even a few "dry" paddings and rubbings of very dark brown or even black to slowly blend in the aging to match.

Wearing a floppy cap at a jaunty angle and talking about modern French Impressionism can help a lot. But make no mistake about it. Matching the colour and patina is a bit of an art and won't be done with one tin or package and one application. If this is a well used gun you probably don't realize how much it has changed over the years.

And be sure that you give the final stain match job at least a few weeks to fully dry or polymerize before you add any signs of linseed, tung, tru- or any other finishing oil. If you don't you're likely going to see all your patina restoration work wash away with the new oil application. In this vein you'd be best off with the base colouring being the Lee Valley water based stains mentioned above. The finishing oils will have a minimal or no effect on them and the "ageing" techniques put on over top won't budge them either. And that's a good thing. But a premature application of finishing oil over the ageing stain job before it's fully dried or polymerized, depending on the product, will likely wash most of your work off.

With stuff like this you can never go wrong for exercising a bit of patience.

 

[marshall]

Why would you not wait till you could pick up walnut???
I could have sent you some scraps.
I don't think you will ever get it to blend in.
You also have two different types of grain.
A oil stain will not work, water stain is you best bet.
I have touched up grain when patching with a fine tip felt
marker.
Picture of the repair?
Marshall

 

[BCRider]

Oh, faking the grain with some felt pens is not a bad idea at all. Again, go with a smaller pen and a light touch to ease in the blend. This is something that could easily be grossly overdone. I have to agree with Marshall in that you won't make the repair dissapear at all but with a few tricks at least you can minimize how noticable it'll be. But it'll never be mistaken for real walnut.

In fact I'd even go so far as to suggest that some black and dark brown paint mixed and then applied with a hard felt "knife" that has been blotted off so it's mostly dry would be a good way to go with this then sort of feather cut it onto the wood to match the grain of the walnut on either side.

Yes, I've got one of those french floppy artist hats on right now....

I sure hope we don't need to suggest you practice this stuff on some scraps first... right?

 

[H Wally]

I guess more info would help too -

First off, the repair is spliced under a barrel band that's quite wide, so the actual seem is completely covered. I'm refurbishing some ross rifles that had their wood cut off just ahead of the rear barrel band. The new piece of wood is spliced under the rear band, then tapered to accomodate the rear band until it takes the front band. The total length is 15 inches or so, and about an inch-1.5 inches in width and height roughly.

Why would you not wait till you could pick up walnut???
I could have sent you some scraps.
I don't think you will ever get it to blend in.
You also have two different types of grain.
A oil stain will not work, water stain is you best bet.
I have touched up grain when patching with a fine tip felt
marker.
Picture of the repair?
Marshall

I've just come back from 3 weeks working 3 hours from the closest store that would supply walnut, and an hour from paved road/cell phone reception... I thought the stock was birch so I brought birch... then realised I had a problem on my hands

On the upside the grain matches perfectly - other than being the wrong colour it flows very nicely. Lined up grow rings etc on the two pieces, which took a lot of searching through different pieces for the right one..... which seems a little silly having the wrong kind of wood

Oh, faking the grain with some felt pens is not a bad idea at all. Again, go with a smaller pen and a light touch to ease in the blend. This is something that could easily be grossly overdone. I have to agree with Marshall in that you won't make the repair dissapear at all but with a few tricks at least you can minimize how noticable it'll be. But it'll never be mistaken for real walnut.

In fact I'd even go so far as to suggest that some black and dark brown paint mixed and then applied with a hard felt "knife" that has been blotted off so it's mostly dry would be a good way to go with this then sort of feather cut it onto the wood to match the grain of the walnut on either side.

Yes, I've got one of those french floppy artist hats on right now....

I sure hope we don't need to suggest you practice this stuff on some scraps first... right?

Haha - definitely going to be testing on the other pieces of birch from the piece

 

[H Wally]

Here're the pics of the repairs - for being done with a carving knife, a block of wood, some copper pipe and some sand paper, not too bad

Also, got some of that water soluble dye from lee valley. Have tested it on a little piece of the same birch and it seems to work very well.

 

[sunray]

Nice piece of birch. Looks like ivory in the pictures. Done that kind of thing before have you?
You won't get it as dark as aged walnut with commercial stains, but try mixing a bit of black stain with walnut stain. I'd play with the stain mix on a piece of scrap. Mind you, an antique furniture restorer might be able to get a match. They play with mixing stains all the time. Clever bunch, so they are.

 

[marshall]

Re your sample piece you stained, after it is dry put on the top finish coat
of oil or what ever you are using as the stain will look different .
Also when sanding the birch , don't go with too fine of sandpaper as
the stain will work better if not glass smooth.
after your sanding , dampen the wood with a damp rag and let dry and
one more light sanding.
You don't need to go finer than 180 or 220 max for sandpaper.
Good luck with this . did you get more than one color of stain?
Marshall

 

[stocker]

HWally: Actually you do not want a stain at all. You want analine dyes which are available from Lee Valley. You'd best get several colors that will approximate what you want and start doing test pieces of wood until you find what you think is the best match.
Stains generally contain non soluble solids which can fill pores and grain quite visibly. Dyes are soluble in water or alcohol and tend to penetrate the wood deeper and more evenly than stains.

 

[H Wally]

Nice piece of birch. Looks like ivory in the pictures. Done that kind of thing before have you?
You won't get it as dark as aged walnut with commercial stains, but try mixing a bit of black stain with walnut stain. I'd play with the stain mix on a piece of scrap. Mind you, an antique furniture restorer might be able to get a match. They play with mixing stains all the time. Clever bunch, so they are.

Good idea - I've got several more to do so I'll see if we've got any local restorers. I'm actually using an analine dye from lee valley, which allows me to vary the concentration/intensity of the stain. I've now lost my test piece, but after two different sessions it looks like I'll even be able to get the intensity changes like on the original by doing the lightest intensity first, then darkening it in the necessary areas after. It seems to blend quite well.

P.S. Just for a matter of extravagance, I think ivory would be perfect - maybe I'll pick up a narwhal tusk, or some big walrus tusks of the EE - I could make an ivory stock for it!

Re your sample piece you stained, after it is dry put on the top finish coat
of oil or what ever you are using as the stain will look different .
Also when sanding the birch , don't go with too fine of sandpaper as
the stain will work better if not glass smooth.
after your sanding , dampen the wood with a damp rag and let dry and
one more light sanding.
You don't need to go finer than 180 or 220 max for sandpaper.
Good luck with this . did you get more than one color of stain?
Marshall

Good to know about not sanding too heavily. I haven't tried the linseed oil yet, but I can get darker than the original with the analine dye, so since the linseed oil darkens it, I should be able to go a little lighter then oil it to darken down to the final colour.

HWally: Actually you do not want a stain at all. You want analine dyes which are available from Lee Valley. You'd best get several colors that will approximate what you want and start doing test pieces of wood until you find what you think is the best match.
Stains generally contain non soluble solids which can fill pores and grain quite visibly. Dyes are soluble in water or alcohol and tend to penetrate the wood deeper and more evenly than stains.

Yep - got analine. I used the colour swatches they had on hand, and estimated how much darker a dye I would need considering my wood is much much lighter than the pieces they tested on. Seems ok so far, though I may go pick up some others just to see.

 

[tbonesmith]

I think you'll have most luck with spirit/alcohol based dies. They allow you to layer them up and they don't contain solids which obscure the grain or character of the underlying timber which water based stains tend to. Also choose several colours in the vicinity of what your after because walnut inevitably looks purple on white stock as yours, but this can be pulled back by first applying a light base stain of black. I am a boatbuilder and joiner by trade and have matched heaps of timbers, and you can get any colour you need by mixing and overcoating spirit based stains. Also to match the patina when you've got the colour right some coloured wax may give the effect of darkened and slightly soiled linseed oil finish.

 

[H Wally]

Well, this is the end product. Went with an analine dye: