Darkening a stock

J

jwcrabb

Inactive
Hey Guys, I'm new here so first i'll say hello to all. I have recently purchased one of the Gibbs 1903A4 Sniper rifle replicas. I'm not sure what the wood is, but it has a lighter finish than I would like. It appears to have some type of oil finish. Is there any product that I could rub into the existing finish to darken it without doing a complete refinish? Thanks
 
Unless a solvent type stain can soak through the finish, there's really no other way then to remove the finish.

Brownell's sell some solvent type gun stains, and you can also use a solvent-based leather dye.
If you try the leather dye, make sure to thin it well with the correct thinner/solvent or it'll stain too dark too fast.
These wood and leather solvent stains and dyes sink in instantly and don't come back out easily, so experiment on a hidden area first.

You can buy Fiebing's Leather Dye from most shoe shops and from Tandy Leather company. Tandy sell the thinner/solvent for the dyes.

Brownell's stains:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=6706/Product/GUN_STOCK_STAIN
 
I did a little research and found that the rifle has a simple Linseed Oil finish.
I did some checking and several people suggested the "Fairtrimmers Military ox Gunstock Oil". They said you could rub it in right over the existing oil finish to darken it.
 
Old English Dark Scratch Cover, fine steel wool, and some elbow grease darkened the wood on my stocks considerably.
 
JW-

Talk to Frank about Fairtrimmer's and what you intend to do. His contact info is on his webpage. He's an enthusiast and he wants you to like his product; in my opinion he'll be pretty up-front about what his product will and won't do
 
stock

Sir;
I've used potassium permanganate for years on military stocks. You will need a prescription from your doctor for it - it's a violent oxidizer!
Harry B.
 
Since the rifle presently has a Linseed oil finish, would applying additional coats of boiled linseed Oil cause it to darken?
 
Brownells sells a "Military Finish Stain," it works really well on vintage guns like the 1903/A3, 30-40 Krog, P-17, M1, M1 carbine, the .22 trainers and such. I redid my entire collection of Savage 23a's with it and they look like they came right out of a vintage arsenal. A nice deep and patina looking chestnut brown. The more you use the darker it gets and then finish off with a standard linspeed and or linseed oil coating of once a day for a week, once a week for a month and then once a month for 2 months. You will have a finish that even the experts cannot decern unless you botched the sanding or something like that. You can also distress the wood a lil with the back edge of a ballpeen hammer by pressing and rubbing it accross typical worn areas. This will create grain pools for the stain and you will get the very common dark areas found on patina wood.
 
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