The best stain I've come across for Arctic Beech Was some I'd made up from Nitric Acid and clean steel wool dissolved in it. Was left over from another project on ancient muzzleloaders and had sat for awhile. The wood was cleaned and the stain applied, scrubbed to get the green oxidation off, and, if I remember, it got the True Oil treatment. Appeared as top quality Walnut!!
When I used this "traditional" stain treatment on a tiger-striped maple long rifle stock the green didn't become evident until about three years after the final finish. I'll never use it again.
SRH
Did it have chromium in it? I think it may have. There were/are a number of concoctions that do seem to feature that green and I think it might be chromium, but I can't recall for sure.
A good aquafortis stain will never turn green. I built this rifle with aquifortis close to 20 yrs old and still dark brown on maple. And of course, most antique maple muzzleloaders haven't turned green. In fact, I have never seen one that has. So, perhaps not all "traditional" finishes are traditional.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/qclHjMQ.jpg)
