How can I keep the color as light a possible while using products that will resist water?

I cut a new stock from a walnut blank. Its color is fine when tested w/mineral spirits, but when I apply an initial coat with full strength Tru Oil or Waterlox, it looks too dark.

I'm testing various areas before I take it down to its final shape. On another test I diluted a first coat of Waterlox w/50% mineral spirits. That resulted in a much lighter affect. I put another coat on top of that (50% tru oil/50% mineral spirits) and that looked fine too. However, when I put on a third coat of 100% Tru Oil, it darkened up again. I waited 24 hrs between each coat. I even bleached a raw test section and set it in the sun. I looked lighter at first, but after the initial coat, it was darker than all of the other tests.

This is for a Sporting Clays Competition gun. Waterlox under Tru Oil has performed wonderfully on my other projects. I don’t have a urethane spray setup.

You are starting with a blank with dark coloration, and attempting to use a finish mainly comprised of boiled linseed oil, that penetrates below the surface.

Wood bleaches, typically contain oxalic acid, and rinsing and drying will leave the pores more open and more receptive to finish penetrating deeply.

I can tell you from experience, that if you took samples of the exact same walnut, and applied a coat of ten different clear wood finishes, you will end up with ten different appearances when dry.

When I conducted an experiment some years back to determine which wood glue would give me the strongest and least visible glue joint, I sanded and applied many different clear, untinted finishes to my Black Walnut samples to see what effect that had on the final appearance of the sanded glue joints.

I recall that Watco Danish Oil gave me the darkest finish, and a clear polyurethane was the lightest. There was quite a range in coloration in between, and the finishes that penetrated deeper tended to end up darker, while a spar varnish and an oil modified urethane tended to be lighter.

You might consider applying a moderately thinned coat of polyurethane as a first coat to act as a sealer, and then lightly sand back to the surface, and follow up with something else. You are doing the right thing by experimenting before getting down to brass tacks.

I also highly recommend getting a copy of the book, "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Rob Flexner. Used copies can be found pretty cheap, and you won't find more practical information on wood and wood finishing in one source anywhere.

You can bleach color out of wood.

Dark English walnut is more desirable and costs more than lighter colored pieces. Check out Cecil Fredi’s site. He values a dark blank more than lighter blank, I think.

I would guess the waterlox is acting like a sealer, except for the comment that full strength appears dark. Any time I have finished wood that turns too dark or splotchy, I consider using a decent sealer and chose a finish that doesn't penetrate? Maybe, try a few test layers of the cut down waterlox to see if it stays light enough for the look you want, and call it good?

Thank you. The advice is much appreciated. Looking forward to how it will turn out. I’ll test with the poly and will grab the book.

I like dark walnut on a gun. I remember, when I was a teenager reading one of Jack O'Connor's articles in Outdoor Life about gunstocks, he said dark wood tends to be more pleasing over time than lighter wood. I've found that to be very true. If the Pilkington Pre-'64 spirit stain was still available, it would make that piece of wood look even better with its rich reddish-brown color.
JR

if you want the lightest possible finish first finish sanding and shaping.... as a stock maker myself at the current point it still looks very unfinished. Use a stiff leather backed piece of wood and sand up to 2500 grit. Your really not sanding much of anything past 1000 grit just burnishing. Once at 2000 grit burnish with stiff leather. By this point you will have a stock that's absolutely flawlessly sanded and the burnished surface will prevent too much take up of oil. Do a small test patch of oil or desired finish in a subtle area... if still too dark then remove and burnish that area again. French polish will seal and give you gloss but wont darken like oil finishes will, if you want to add a bit of colour you can tint your french polish with alkanet this colour would be "in the finish" as apposed to "in the wood"... mix alkanet with alcohol, filter off the alkanet add the coloured alcohol to the shellac flakes to make your finish.

Demonwolff has a point about polishing and burnishing. My experience echoes his advice.

Artist grade linseed oil is super refined and does not weigh down the natural color of walnut. It will oxidize over the months following the finish. In my experience artist grade linseed oil will mature to its full color in about 6 months but it will be nowhere near as dark as raw oil or Tru oil which in addition to darkness also has a brownish tint.

It is a beautiful and dramatic piece of walnut. Worth doing well.

I have had all sorts of requests regarding the colour of a finished stock, all I can remember folks wanted the finish to make the wood rich dark and beautiful even if the timber was a piece of fence post, to make things lighter was never a request. So I have given this posting some thought as to what I would do to make the wood lighter. My first thought was to use wood bleach that is obtainable from some wood finishing suppliers though having tried this product household bleach works just as well for less money but the outcome of either I was not much impressed for the work put in. That said the only other product I could think of that did not darken the wood surface to much though what ever you put on will effect the woods natural colour to a greater or lesser extent, so the one product that I know that will perform well keeping the rain oil and hand sweat out of the wood and does not add self colour is "Melamine Sanding Sealer" I have used in other wood finishing situations especially trying not to effect the wood colour. Because this product is more of a trade finish small quantities are a little on the expensive side but worth a try.