I'm finishing up repairs on an old broken gunstock and am not confident that the replacement pieces of walnut will darken up enough to suit me when I start with the linseed oil final finish.
What can I use that would be consistent with the age of the gun? 1860s period. NO, not a civil war gun (it is a remote possibility but no unit markings and no serial number and no stories from the seller make all of that pure conjecture--plus it lacks the arsenal upgrades that the majority of these had done just before or during that war).
Pretty sure the broken stock and what looked like 1950s-1960s era repair blew out all collector value. It might be worth more parted out but I really don't want to do that.
I've read about walnut husks but don't have access to those right now and don't want to buy a bag of 10 lbs. Boiling regular walnut shells was a bust--no color comes out.
So, any ideas?
Thanks!
What can I use that would be consistent with the age of the gun? 1860s period. NO, not a civil war gun (it is a remote possibility but no unit markings and no serial number and no stories from the seller make all of that pure conjecture--plus it lacks the arsenal upgrades that the majority of these had done just before or during that war).
Pretty sure the broken stock and what looked like 1950s-1960s era repair blew out all collector value. It might be worth more parted out but I really don't want to do that.
I've read about walnut husks but don't have access to those right now and don't want to buy a bag of 10 lbs. Boiling regular walnut shells was a bust--no color comes out.
So, any ideas?
Thanks!