Here is Wyosmith's method, I think I copied it from the gun build tutorial, but it may have been somewere else he had it posted for us to use, and his guns sure are purty.
Maple needs to be stained. I first make up a “wash stain” out of brown water soluble die that I buy from Brownells. It’s mixed with water and is thin enough to make a color, but that color on the wood is about 1/4 as dark as I want for the final finish.
I sand the stock down to 400 grit. Then I put on the wash coat of this stain, and let it dry. Water, as you know, will raise the grain, the "whiskers", and the light color will draw your attention to every little flaw in your sanding. That kills 2 birds with one stone.
So go back to 320 grit paper and sand out every little flaw you can see, and then sand the whole stock again so it‘s smooth and there are no whiskers left.
Now do the whole process again!
After a few of these cycles, you will find the wood doesn’t whisker anymore, and that you can’t find any flaws to correct.
When you are sure that it’s ready, put on your dark stain. I like the Laurel Mountain Forge stains, but you can use any that you like.
( A word of caution here:
NEVER USE ANY OIL BASED STAINS ON FIGURED MAPLE. ALWAYS USE ALCOHOL OR WATER BASED STAINS)
When the stain is dry, steel wool it back with 0000 wool, and your ready for oil.
Here’s where I use 2 oils.
Mix some boiled Linseed oil 50/50 with paint thinner and wet down the stock inside and out. Make it WET! So it’s dripping and running,, and keep it wet for at least 10 minutes. If the oil soaks in, add more, so it’s dripping wet.
After 10 minutes take a paper towel and dry it off. Now set it in the sun for 3 days in a window. Turn it every day, 2 times, so the sunlight can cure the oil.
After 3 days steel wool it off again with 0000 wool.
Now take your low gloss Tung Oil and spread a very thin coat on the stock. Do this every day for 3 days and then steel wool it back to even out the finish. Put on another very thin coat and another and so on, steel wooling every 3 coats until the finish is perfect.
If your wood is very hard, I find that you will usually be done after the first 3 coats, one steel wooling, and one more coat.
If the wood is less hard, it will take more oil. Just rub it back a bit to even things out every 3 coats, and keep the process going until it’s done. Your own eyes will tell you when that is.
Now.......... the reason for the way I do all this;
If you go to Tung as a sealing coat, the stock will be beautiful, but if you ever scratch it and need to touch it up you are in trouble. You see, Tung is such a good sealer that even wood alcohol won’t go through it. So you’d sand out a small spot and go get your stain. You’d put the stain on the repair, and you’ll get only about half the color to penetrate the wood. It just won’t get through the Tung.
If you seal with linseed oil, you can cut through it to the repair, and the stain goes through like it was tissue paper. You get a good color match and you re-seal with 50/50 Linseed and paint thinner.
Just use the same process on the repair that you used on the whole stock, and when you are done you yourself can’t find the repair. It will be a perfect match.
This is a gun finish for rifleman, and not just collectors. This finish is VERY weather resistant and tough, and it’s repairable
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TMA Member #234
Topic: Magic Maple stain (Read 1666 times)