xchisels, while I'm only able to cypher part of your post (I'm fuctionally illiterate), I did see, as in a previous post of yours, referance to the Mantons useing vinegar stain. I find this quite interesting. My understanding is that vinegar stain uses the same basic concept as aquafortis (nitric acid) to color wood. That being, iron is disolved in the acid making the liquid laden with iron molecules. These molecules are carried into the wood with the liquid, the liquid evaporates out leaving the iron in the wood and when the wood is heated, the iron molecules oxidize turning them reddish brown. The only real difference between useing vinegar and nitric is that vinegar is weaker/safer but takes a long time to disolve the iron. Now, the reason I find the refference to the Mantons puzzleing is that aquafortis and vinigar stain are used for maple and not on walnut as the stain will react with the tannin in walnut and turn it black. So, either I'm missing something here (Likely), or the mantons stocked enough guns in maple to warrent mention of the stain they used. OTOH, vinegar is a weaker stain than AF and perhaps it doesn't react to the tannin in walnut as vigorously as AF would and hence the reason for useing vinegar rather than AF in the first place. Hmmmm.

Cody

Tact is for those not clever enough to be sarcastic