doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Staining...SDH Question for you

When staining wood that has had the grain filled and wet sanded with water afterwards to the wood surface(with pours/grain now filled)

Have you had the stain and its reducer desolve the finish filler in the pours/grain after you stain and wipe? Leaveing the Grain/Pours looking opened again?

I am useing Laurel Mtn stain

It's a battle, all the way. Any spirit stain is essentially solvent with color. Over enthusiastic staining - rubbing too hard and/or too many coats - or sanding just a bit too deeply throught the finish will show pin holes in the filler. It is more difficult to fill all the pores in a stock that most folks imagine. These holes rarely show until the final finish is applied. Dull finishes don't show the pores as readily, with ANY shine they leap right out there at you.

Staining adds numerous complications and much work to any stock finishing. I have no sure cure, and a stock with pin holes showing in my drying cabinet. Do you live with a few pores showing, or not?

My best advice is to try to imagine where the problem occured, then repeat the step that didn't work.
I really don't mean to be a wiseass, but:
Did I mention, I've never been completely happy with any stock finish I've ever done? Every time I get a really good one, the next one is a [censored].
Did I mention that most stockers shy away from staining because of the added difficulties?
Did I mention that after thirty years I still struggle with processes that seem like I should have them down?
Two things in this shop that are never a given: Stock finishing and rust bluing. There are always variables in both processes, I do the best I know how, and if that doesn't work, try something else or do it again.

Sorry there is no pat answer, and I may not seem the expert you imagined.

I stained a test piece, maybe the filler desolved and soaked in more or might have rubbed to much trying too wipe some of the color off and wiped the filler right out with the solvent.

Interesting, this Laurel Mtn stain works right on top of a finish, unsanded back, also, and seems to penatrate even into the finish and you cant scratch it off with a fingernail.

This one is a black walnut stock that I reshape so it has some "big" grain.

Think Ill try wipeing back on a couple coats of finish, then stain, then some more finish.

What Steve said, about never being happy and never getting the same good result twice in a row.

I love the Laurel Mountain products and use them a lot but have found that any enthusiastic rubbing WILL pull the filler right out of the pores, especially if the rubbing is done with the grain vs across it.

Much of smithing can fairly be described as applied science but IMO the stock finishing is definitely an art with only the barest lip service paid to anything scientific or logical or repeatable. Very frustrating sometimes.
Regards, Joe

All of the above...realize that "some" gunsmith processes are PFM...purely fantastic magic...and you've got to try and remember which pair of teeth you held your tongue between when they worked last time! When I worked down the street at the "B" company, wood finishing was one of the top ten subjects I was asked about. Two different sticks of wood may respond quite differently to the same technique, so you do need to have several methods in your bag of tricks.

David Kaiser
Montezuma, IA

Steve, in your opoinion , would soaking a stock in a light stain for a period of time allow the stain to soak in deeper ? I have been told that many stains req. many coats to be applied to get a dark color. I was thinking that a "light" stain was used, wouldn't it become more intence after a short soak. If an alcohol stain was used, wouldn't the accohol dry/leach out rather quickly --- say within a week ? Or, using this method, would an oil stain be superior ? Just wondering ........

There are lots of ways to get the stain in the wood, the problem is usually how to fill the pores (always the problem with walnut) without sanding through the stain. That is why the staining is done AFTER the filling.

If at all possible I prefer not to stain at all, as I'm always thinking into the future, and if the stock may need a repair or refinish sometime. The old stain always creates problems matching when repairing or refinishing.
Likewise for the finish I choose. I always want one that can be easily repaired, so as not to create more problems for myself later.
Unfortunately, some wood just doesn't "pop" unless it's got the right stain to bring out the figure, and in that situation I apply the stain as close to the end as possible. Before the finsh is applied, and after all sanding is done, other sanding needed between coats of finish.

sdh tell about your book on rifles--regards,ben

Ben, I have the books written by Steve, they are well worth the asking price ............ You know I wouldn't lie to you.