So whats the best stain for refinishing a walnut stock: ive tried water-based, spirit based and oil based finishes; I like the spirit based stuff, but please comment, i am a neophyte!
can I also use dye to augment the red stain? I see dye available from Brownells.
I am trying to duplicate the deep red london oil finish on most English rifles of yore.And none of the stains at my local woodworking or hardware stoes appear to be red enough. Red mahagony and rosewood are the best i can find. Are they red enough?

I have been playing with Pilkington's English Red on a CZ 550 stock, and it looks pretty sweet. I am looking for a brown-yellow spirit stain elsewhere, to darken it up a bit. The wood has grain like a telephone pole, so if I make it a dark, dark red brown it will look better.

My experience with oil based stains is that they muddy the grain a lot, and there is a limit to how much pigment you can get on the wood without either hiding the grain, or sealing the wood with the pigment carrier.

My experience with water (& alcohol) based dyes is that they suck. No matter how many times you raise the grain with water and smooth it back down again before you actually stain, you always get some surface roughening. I used them ONE TIME to stain some cherry shaker boxes I made - the colors were cool, but the finish was so far from the silky smooth I am used to on those boxes that I didn't use them again.

Stick with the spirit stains, wear nitrile gloves, use them outside, don't smoke, have fun.

Couple of links for you:

R. Gale Lock stain

Pilkington Stains

I haven't tried the R Gale Lock stains, but I am about to try the dark walnut to complement my Pilkington English Red base coat. It is quite a bit cheaper than the Pilkington.

I just checked on Rockler and Woodcraft, but all they carry now are water / alcohol based dyes and the ubiquitous oil based stains. I have heard the TransTints are OK, but it has been several years since I last used them personally and I can't remember how they worked out.

"Sprirt stain" is another name for alcohol soluble dye.

Has anyone used the WATCO Danish oils?

SDH does a great job of warming up a stock with a little color. He has posted pics and the manufacturer of the stain. Try searching for it under his handle.

Is Pilkingtons stains a alcohol based stain?

If I remember, I asked brownells and they didnt know

quote:

Originally posted by Robe763:
Has anyone used the WATCO Danish oils?

Yes, lots of wet sanding w/400 then let stand awhile , wipe it down & Do it again tomorrow 10 or so days makes a dam nice finish

tsturm
Does this oil hold up well to the elements and would you recommend using the satin wax by WATCO over the finish? I recently started a refinish on a Rem. 1100 using the WATCO oil. After stripping I started wet sanding with 220 grt and I am up to 800 grt. I only have time on the weekends to work on this so it sits for approximately 2 weeks between coats. It seems to give the wood a nice smooth feel and look to it but I have no experience with this oil.

Try Behlens Solarlux Blood Red as a red stain. It's spirit based, MEK maybe, and it is great.
I generally use a brown spirit stain first if the wood is light colored, so the red stained wood doesn't end up pinkish.

"Sprirt stain" is another name for alcohol soluble dye.

It means soluble in a solvent Lacquer Acetone or Mek will also carry the Dye .

Mohawk is another source of Soluble Dye stains .

If it's a darker richer stain ones looking for . lightly sand stock apply stain of your choice let set for 5 min. very lightly sand again and apply another mixture of stain on the wood .

I always dilute my stain at least 50% with solvent then if it's not quite dark enough , just do the above or reapply another coat of stain on top of the first one .

If wild grain or dark veins are what you want to show up lets say as almost black or real deep brown . Do those areas first with the appropriate color of stain , then go back either lightly sand around vein high lites , then apply your over all or background stain .

Dark walnut works very well , then apply Red stain or light brown depending on the Hue ones after .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

Pilkingtons has Xylol as the carrier, not denatured alcohol. I do not know what the R Gale Lock stains use.

Alcohol carried stains that I have used in the past always raised the grain to some degree; Pilkingtons does not, at all.

Interesting article in this months Fine Woodworking on using Dyes on Maple. Using multiple coats of water base dye sanded back to hilite the softer more absorbent wood. probably too fragile for a gunstock.

Rich

Maple is not to soft for a gun stock , it's harder than Walnut . Sugar and Black Maple or several of the other Maples are well suited for stock material . If one like lighter colored stocks that is . Maple is tough to stain as it's tight grained and there for does not take staining well .
Generally Alcohol will not raise grain , there must be something else in the formula ?.
Acetone,Lacquer or almost any fast evaporating type solvent will not raise wood grain .


Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

Dr.K.

Sorry I meant the finish being used in the article is too fragile for a stock, not the wood.

He finishes the piece with one coat of oil and a french polish/shellac.

Rich

Understood ; I thought it was the wood .

I have often wondered why so many gun owners prefer OIL finishes on there stocks ?. It's not as durable as several other finishes . It dings gouges easily as well as repairs about the same way . So maybe that's it ease of repair ?.

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

I've gotten my best results using Pilkingtons.

Terry