I have a birdseye maple stock in the shop. It is going on a Sako L461 with a stainless steel, sporter weight barrel. Would it look better finished natural in its "blond" state or stained before finishing?

Bill Jacobs

Only personal opinion, but unless you really know you stains and have scrap to experiment with, safest to leave blond.

Once tried the "suigi" method and the heat split the stock right down the middle

what do you like and how long you got. leave it natural and it will naturally darken with age but it does take years. stain it and then as Duane said you may have to test various colors, types of stain and procedures to discover what appeals to you.

Leave it blond.

I hear blonds have more fun.
Storing it where the sunlight hits it will darken it quicker.
I make a lot of table tops and cabinets out of maple, they take on a lovely shade in time.

Personally, leave it blond. Fajen made up two Maple water stains...orange and brown. They stained the stock during the sanding process between the 220 and 320 grit stages. The stain sanded off the top of the stock and the stain stayed in the background/fiddleback /birdseye sections to darken. I thought the orange looked not quite right...they liked it.

I've used Aqui Fortis on maple stocks. Not really a stain, more of a chemical reaction/conversion, I guess you would call it.

Depending on your likes and dislikes (some here hate Maple!!!) a blond finish can be interesting. Below is a Pacific Big Leaf Maple tiger stripe stock with "Guitar" finish. Multiple applications and sanding down to 1200 grit.



Below is a test piece about 2-1/2 inches wide, same wood. With a stain brew of my witchcraft topped with 20 coats of Plikingtons.




So if you have a bunch of test pieces try a lot of combinations.

I you checker, go coarse. 16 or 18 LPI.

I love Maple. Nice looking stock.

I like this but I have no idea how it was finished.