Toner, stain or faux finish(paint)

Was just going to stain the sap wood on the grip and toe of the stock. I'll have to get help since I'm a bit color lazy.

How would you do it? Or leave it.

Dry.



Wet

richj

Nice grain on that one. Some thoughts....

I had wanted to do that same exact thing. Had a dandy piece of wood in mind. But, the deal fell through. Long story averted, the seller switched the deal. So, I had to pass.

I would have taped the fully prepped stock over the sap wood, a little bit clear of the parting line and using a penciled compass opened up to 1 inch carefully follow the parting line with the point and make a line on the tape. Then put the tape on a glass surface and cut along the line. Tape over the dark wood and apply the stain.

Neat project. Keep us in the loop.
CB

Absolutely not; do not try to selectively stain wood; it is what it is; either stain all of it or none of it; in your case, none of it. If you start trying to paint it different colors for will end up with a mess.

I know my opinion doesn't matter much to most people but I think it is a fantastic looking piece of wood. I would just put something like tung oil, linspeed, Tru Oil etc. etc. on it to protect it.

Steve......

I am finishing a Citori stock and forend right now. The forend has about 50% sapwood and was very blond stripped. The original Browning finish was a deep reddish brown tinted topcoat. Blotted out most of the grain. Customer wanted it dark. I wetted the wood with solvent and got an idea of how dark and red I needed to go. Much like your pic. The final solution was a duplex stain of dark walnut oil followed by Minwax Gunstock for the red. Turned out a perfect match for the heartwood and the grain shows.

But the point is, I assume, that you did not selectively paint stain on it but stained it all the same color.

Oh no. The top of the forend was dark heartwood with figure. The bottom below the finger grooves was sapwood. Browning had sprayed some God awful dark tinted bowling pin finish over it that was almost like a paint or a deck finish. When I stripped it I damn near had a heart attack when I saw that blond wood below the natural dark heartwood. Had to selectively stain it to give the customer what he wanted.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
But the point is, I assume, that you did not selectively paint stain on it but stained it all the same color.

Ok, yours sounds more drastic than Rich's.

You can try differnt dies, use the darker shades on a block of wood, then on the stock area, if it doesn't work sand it out and try again, also try several coats...Done properly you can match most any finish..Be carefull with stained area as to wet sanding or dry sanding for that matter..Its definatly an art form to get a match, but it can be done..

Not sure why you wouldn’t selectively stain. Guitars are stained like that all the time to create fades. Ain’t easy, but it works.

Stain match, not a big deal. Just don't slop it on next to the edge of the tape, just barely make it wet (almost dry) there and pull your strokes away from the parting line so it won't bleed under the tape.
If the old & new shades look odd together you can go over the whole stock with another stain after the first one dries completely. Easy on the final rub.

Hiding sap wood is no big deal. I prefer a wood dye over a stain. Stain fills the pores. Dye penetrates the wood. I find the dye easier to control.

Nice stock!
I like medium polymerized Tung oil. Pure tung oil take a lot of coats, time and work. Most full polymerized Tung oil does not appeal to me. It set too fast. I have some shortcuts for wet sanding oil that I worked out, if you are interested.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-c...ized-tung-oil-sealer

Alcohol based dyes,,or at least wood dyes using some sort of solvent.

I wouldn't start with plain oil based wood stain. That won't get you much color change and you can't add much to it after an application or maybe two.

Solvent dyes are much different. They really color deeply. That's what's used on hard wood like maple and the like where oil stains mearly lightly change the tone a little.

Some people use leather dye like from Tandy's (are they still around. They worked well.

I use Laurel Mtn brand 'stain'
https://www.laurelmountainforge.com/stain.htm

It's a solvent based wood dye. Mix colors to apply or apply colors over others.
Too dark?,,wipe over the area with a pad dampened with acetone to lighten it up.

I use only 'Lehigh Maple', Cherry, and Amer Walnut.

The Cherry is VERY red. The Maple is not as yellow as you would think when applied to a brown AmWal wood, but on a sap wood it probably would still hint towards yellow tone.
The Walnut stain along with a touch or a separate application of the Maple mat do very well.

Many times I get it very close to what I want and for the final 'tone' I then use oil stain (MinWax though any will do).
The solvent stains seem to open or at least leave the pores of the wood open so it does accept the oil stain at least somewhat as a final stain coating. That is all I'm looking for in that last application of it anyway.

You can also very carefully use Ebony oil stain on the last coating to drag some black streaking highlights into the area. It doesn't need a lot, just something to beak up the plain look of the sap wood area.

The Solvent stains dry extremely fast. But I let them dry till the next day anyway before working on the wood.
I usually Very Lightly scuff over the dried stained wood with a piece of maroon or grey scotchbrite to even up any spots that may be raised (grain). But generally solvent stains won't cause you any problems.

There are water based stains as well and they work pretty good. But the grain raising problems with them can create quite a mess.
Plus they don't penetrate as well as the solvent type.

I use only Laurel Mountain stains. I have at least 6 colors of them on hand at all time.

I have 2 Behlans alcohol base dyes one is too yellow and the other is too orange. I forget why I bought them.

Rich,
I agree with the earlier comment that the woods looks nice as it is. I think it is a nice contrast and doesn’t need to be covered up. The only thing I would do is raise the angle from the toe to the grip slightly. That would make the stock a little more classic in its appearance and would secondarily remove a little wood from the bottom of the butt stock, where the sapwood is prominent.

Never tried it on gunstocks, but my father use to use MinWax Stain Conditioner on the Furniture he built to even out the stain.

https://www.minwax.com/wood-pr...LID*%5D&gclsrc=3p.ds

stain conditioner is usually a shellac type filler. I've used shellac on the endgrain of wood where it would be visible. it stops the stain for soaking in and getting too dark.

I've done it several times using water or alcohol stains. The trick is to use a modelers airbrush to apply the streaking. No need to mask, in fact you don't want to because it leaves hard lines. A good airbrush such as Badger or Pasche can spray lines down to about 1/16 inch.

I've had the same problem many times. I selectively stain the offending portion only after at least some finish has been applied using Laurel Mountain stains. Since the stain is on top of the finish, you can easily adjust, add to, or remove what you've done.
Phil