Stock finishing..........

kamlooky

kamlooky

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Going over an older Winchester Model 370 .410 Youth.
Ordered up some repair parts for the old gal and have the
two piece stock set stripped of finish, steamed and near the
point of finishing up the wood.
I was going to use Tru Oil, but the stock set are of two different
pieces of wood and one is more white than the other honey looking
color.
Now to figure out what color stain to apply.
What color would be proper or appropriate for this old gal?
Can one use the Tru Oil over a stain?
Thanks for your suggestions.

:cheers:
 
Look at leather dye instead of wood stain. It's a tinted alcohol rather than an oil based mud so it won't cloud the grain like a stain would do. For the first coat of Tru-Oil don't be surprised if it lifts some of the dye. But since you only use a little oil and rub it in completely all will work out nicely.

With more normal oil finishes I found that the oil lifted some of the dye which then got rubbed off along with the excess oil. So I started out darker than I wanted.

Over time exposure to the sun will also even up the colour of the woods. The lighter will darken to that same honey colour faster than the one which is already honey coloured will darken further. So don't sweat it too much if they come out slightly different at first. So if you just get the colour close that's good enough. Then Nature will do the rest.
 
Try chainsaw oil.... you won't regret it....

IMG-20120702-00165.jpg
 
"...the other honey looking..." Likely still has stain in it.
"...What color..." What what? Colour? Walnut. Then pure tung oil.
 
But chainsaw oil will never cure. So it'll always be oily and attract and hold dust.

Also the colour you got depends on what brand of oil. The stuff I've got is thick like honey but about the colour of Coors Lite. It would leave the wood hellishy messy and oily to hold.
 
Walnut stain, until you have desired Colour...O.K. To do some spots more than once, if they are lighter. Stop when desired Colour is reached...Don't use chain saw oil, or any oil that comes from belo ground, that's what makes those OLD firearms "black" around the metal. Use tung, boiled linseed, or any of the commercial oil finishes.I always rub in with palm of my hant until it gets hot. More times you do it, glossier it gets. Just my way of doin it!!!
 
Winchester used a boiled down stain made from Black Walnut hulls, the outer layer of the walnut nut. Gives that classic Winchester red-brown color.

Stuff makes for misery on yer fingers, if ya gotta show up at anything formal, if you get any on ya.

I have used a lot of whatever stain was available, covered it with Linseed or True Oil, came out good. Linseed (Boiled) takes a while to dry.

Cheers
Trev
 
BCRider said:
But chainsaw oil will never cure. So it'll always be oily and attract and hold dust.

Also the colour you got depends on what brand of oil. The stuff I've got is thick like honey but about the colour of Coors Lite. It would leave the wood hellishy messy and oily to hold.
Click to expand...

Tru-oil and danish oil never cures either... it sinks into the wood and the surface is left dry....
 
Superbrad said:
Tru-oil and danish oil never cures either... it sinks into the wood and the surface is left dry....
Click to expand...

Wrong. Tru-oil penetrates a very small amount and builds up on top of the wood. Over the course of a couple weeks it fully cures to a hard finish. Linseed oil penetrates and polymerizes. Chainsaw oil... Lol
'Looky; what type of wood are you working with? Birch is a PITA to stain due to its tight grain structure. It always comes out blotchy and uneven for me with oil based stains. Any small amount of oil in the grain even from just handling it will create a blotchy spot too. I've never used them but have heard alcohol based leather dyes are the way to go with difficult to stain wood.
 
The light areas in a piece of wood is usually due to either the light area being harder than the darker areas so it doesn't absorb finish and or as well, or at times the lighter areas are actually some of the heart wood from just under the bark, which in many spieces of wood is naturally lighter. Regardless in my experience they can be a pain at times darken to match. Wood as you know is a natural product and they never make two pieces the same that is what makes wood so unique and beautiful in my opinion.

The alcohol and water based stains I find tend to penetrate better at times than the oil based. That being said depending on the quality of finish your trying to get the first step is to usually fill the pores of wood up even with the woods surface. This is usually done by applying one or two coats of finish and then taking off what has accumulated on the surface just leaving the build up in the pores. This is repeated until the pores are completely filled, or lightly sand the surface of the wood leaving the sanding dust then applying a bit of finish to the surface making a slurry to fill the pores this also takes several applications. Both methods will remove some of the stain you were so careful to get all matched just right. More often than not I end up mixing a tad of stain to the finish and applying it with my finger tip to the lighter areas and blending it into the darker. Wood would look boring if it was all exactly the same colour so you just have to play and experiment until it pleases your eye. I don't think your eye would be pleased with the motor oil/ chainsaw oil look.
There are as many recipes and methods to stock finishing as there are for chocolate chip cookies. Stock finishing is not rocket science, neither is making cookies. Putting a good finish consistently on a stock is learned art. So is making good chocolate chip cookie. Both take a lot of time and experimentation to perfect. Hope this helps a little.
 
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Superbrad said:
Tru-oil and danish oil never cures either... it sinks into the wood and the surface is left dry....
Click to expand...

Many folks that have used these products would disagree with these statements. And I'm one of them.

No finishing oil will do the job with the first coat. You need to apply, rub off the excess then be patient enough to let the first coat "dry" correctly. Finishing oils do not "dry" as we normally understand such things. Instead they polymerize through a reaction with the oxygen in the air to a hard film. But this process takes quite a long time in some cases. For most products it is not an overnight sort of process. And some oils take a few weeks to finish the process of polymerization to a hard film.

Also most finishing oils will leave the surface looking "dry" after they are wiped off and soak in. But you then have a base for the next coat and the one after that to build on which has a really good tenacious grip on the wood grain. Most finishing oils are a three or more coat process. If you're not going the course with them you will never see what they can do for the wood.
 
I'd have to agree with the staining of the stock with leather dye.

I just picked up a bottle of it today and so far the results are a much more even colour as opposed to conventional stains. It seems to be much easier to control the shade yet still let the beauty of the grain come through. No streaking or blotchy patches with the dye that I've noticed yet.
 
This is the inventory I have found in Thing Two's leather kit.
An All In One bin with colours Mocha, Scarlet, Fudge and Acorn Brown.
Not sure what "All In One" means though.

The other "Dye" kit has colours Java, Chocolate Cherry, Bison, Dark Cocoa,
Timber and Dark Mahogany...................brown.

Laugh2, what flavor eye scream would you like?
 
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