I have no clue if anyone does this. Light torching a nice piece of wood before first tung oil application.

I never thought of this but was looking at my old 20 sxs stock and it looks rustic , with dark blackish highlights.

I was wondering how it was made to look that way.
Its been restocked at sometime.

I was wondering about torching lightly the wood at the wicking step.
Is this a stupid idea or has anyone done this?

I've only scorched maple. To me scorching only does justice to curly wood, and if walnut has curl a good sanding will show it off plenty well. I don't know that I would care for scorched walnut, it's usually dark enough already.

If you are determined to, try it on a small area where it does not meet metal. Then if you don't like it you can sand it out without any proud metal.

If you then want to do the entire stock, dampen all sharp edges first and play it fast over them as they char easily. You will probably still want to sand before finishing.

Im not going to take a torch to the 2 fancy walnut stocks I am working on . I just wondered if its ever done or what effect is the result.

I think light wood is an acquired taste. And I certainly don't like working with it as much as walnut. But "toasting" maple or myrtle can make it somewhat interesting.

This is a myrtle stock (affectionately termed "Mrytle-Bitch") that I lightly toasted. It was absolutely white.

Toasting will yield contrast that you can't achieve by staining. However, there is a tendency to over-do it by trying to make it darker. When this happens....it just looks like it was charred....rather than revealing the figure. This stock is actually a bit darker than the photos appear.

GV

Grandview ,, I finally got a replacement stock from Great American after several "I will send it out tomarrow " promises for 2 months.

They sent me a black walnut with pretty good fiddle back the whole length and some mineral streaking in the butt. Its a better cut than the first one but still has a high toeline but not as bad.

Im almost complete with fitting/ inletting , just alittle bit more sinking the barrel and shank down so the bottom of the reciever hits by the reciol lug. The inletting they did seems pretty straight and good .

Ill probably get another stock from them. Nice wood. I need one for a Remington model 720 enfield I just picked up.

Rick