I have a cherry stocked Mauser that is a little light colored for my tastes. It is finished in tung oil. I have thought about stripping it and applying a light stain, but I would be upset it I didn't get enough of the finish out of the more porous areas of the wood and didn't realize it until it stained unevenly.

The cherry seems pretty dense, uniform, with tight grain and no open pores or I wouldn't even consider it. What are the thoughts on being able to do a decent job on this? Any advice on stripper brands, or off-beat techniques to ensure that even absorbed hardened tung oil is removed?

Most pros, as I understand it, wait to start staining until after the pores are filled. Having a sealer coat under the stain wil help eliminate splotches and reduce the risk of sanding through the stain during the finish process.

Cherry makes a nice stock. I finish it with Tru-Oil, and it seems to darken with age after an oil finish is applied, so I don't stain it any.

Any heavy duty methylene chloride based stripper goop will do the job. After stripping and washing off the the stripper, let it dry completely. Out in the sunlight, you should be able to see any little shiny spots, and those spots are the indication for another pass of the stripper.

i've never done a gunstock in cherry, but i've built a fair amount of furniture and a few grandfather clocks using northern blackcherry, so this might help....
i get a nice medium reddish-brown tone by using "poly-shade" from minwax called "old maple" it's a reddish hue. before you condemn the "stain/varnish" idea read on as to how i use it. i say this because anyone who finishes allot of wood knows most stain/varnish products really suck. minwax's isn't too bad and i don't use it as you are instructed to by minwax.
what i do is thin it about 25% with thinner/spirits. then use it as a wipe-on, let sit for about 10 minutes or so and wipe-off type sealer toner. it works great, lets the cherry's soft brown and darkening with age come through and gives a nice traditional "cherry-reddish hue" to the piece. being thinned allows it work as a sealer and penetrate well so an oil can be used for subsequent finnish coats, rubbed in just as done with gunstocks. i've found that it looks allot better than sealing and/or finnishing with clear laquer, common in furniture but you wouldn't do that on a gunstock, anyways and gives a bit more traditional color than using tung or any other wipe on oil on raw cherry. northern black cherry gets a bit more brown as it ages and seems to loose it's red hue. i've also never had any blotchy problems so commonly heard about with cherry using this method all my pieces come out very evenly collored with good grain line contrasts and smooth as glass.

I prefer using Dye stain myself rather than pigment types .

http://www.taunton.com/finewoo...llAbout.aspx?id=2954

Dye type are most commonly used in commercial furniture manufacturing situations .

As they offer 3 distinct advantages over oil or water pigmentation stains .

First clarity ( not muddy looking ) second they dry extremely quickly as they are carried or

added in a solvent base ( They can also be water based but I don't care for those either ).

Last but certainly most important IMO is they allow for toning shade lighter darker or blending

of colors . They also can be added too several gunstock finish products and rubbed in !.

Without ill effects . Example Tru Oil is a fine oil finish for stocks which a person wants the oil

look. You can add Dye Stain too Tru Oil rub it in or just apply as instructions recommend .

To light ? Do it again or add additional Dye too the Tru Oil .

It's just my opinion along with 7/8 of professional wood workers !.

It's also referred too as Lacquer masking stain or stain tone finishes .

It also penetrates the wood more deeply if applied correctly .