Cheers for sharing, its not too late to try a little coloring and I may well give it a go as you suggest, I was planning on staining the patch just a little, I have tested some stains on some of the same bits of wood used for the patch but I have never used India ink on stocks before having only used it when drawing, it dries very stable from memory but do I need to seal over it as all to prevent it running when I'm oil finishing?