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Anyone tried staining + varnishing wood parts in unusual colors?


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I got couple of unfinished "firewood-quality" stocks from the Centerfire's Veprs and wanted to experiment with doing some unusual colors...

 

So I browsed around for awhile and mostly found kinda bland shades and nothing that really "pops" to the eye, or finishes that would be too smothering and covering up the grain; then I found these Craftsman's Blend by JW etc. stains:

 

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I think Midnight Blue, Teal Blue, Caribbean Blue with deep gloss to semi-gloss finish might look pretty good.

 

I am a fan of deep candy-like finishes and darker shades/colors so I would definitely try Chianti as well- but that seems more traditional.

 

Anyone tried staining and varnishing wood in more unusual colors? How did it come-out?

 

 

Edit:

I also emailed the JW etc. ... they should be getting a new shipment of stains this September. They guy seemed also pretty responsive.

Event sent me a quick higher-resolution pic of the stains:

20130814_131318.jpg

Edited by HappYBallZ
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Just be prepared for the ruskie wood to not get real rich or grain defined,as a hardwood.bot you can stain black, then sand to reveal grain and stain desired wood color. you can also use wood conditioner for pre stain, but I havent found it to help a lot with color depth. I stain 2 coats, then add some of the stain ( I use oil based) to some oil based clear do a coat or 2,then topcoat.it brings a lot of depth in color to the wood stocks. hope this helps. PS I do color matching for historic restoration woodwork and all i can say is ,its just wood if you dont like it sand and start again.

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You can get some really interesting results mixing woodstain colors together to get the desired color and then mixing that with clear poly urethane. You can still see the grain but the resulting color is uniform, even between different types of wood (because the color sits ontop).

 

I got frustrated trying to match colors and this was the method I discovered worked best.

 

(Haha, basically what Shankkole just posted. Great minds think alike.)

Edited by Sim_Player
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Water based like the stains the OP cited will create better better color on hard wood that oil based stains. I hate that they always use oak for color sampling. Maple and birch are much tighter grain and take color harder.

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I've done many, many intarsia projects, both with natural wood shades and dyed woods. Yes I did a couple shotgun stocks in OD Green stain for duck hunter, too.

Do you have any pictures to share of your projects? Especially the more unusual colored ones.

 

I looked-up Intarsia examples... they look pretty cool, and seems to be a lot of work.

 

I have no idea what wood these things are made out of ... looks very light. Maybe pine?

 

 

 

I say go with Buttercup cuz it sounds tough...

Haha ... not a big fan of ligther "blonde" colors, maybe because I have not seen one that was done well.

 

 

Just be prepared for the ruskie wood to not get real rich or grain defined,as a hardwood.bot you can stain black, then sand to reveal grain and stain desired wood color. you can also use wood conditioner for pre stain, but I havent found it to help a lot with color depth. I stain 2 coats, then add some of the stain ( I use oil based) to some oil based clear do a coat or 2,then topcoat.it brings a lot of depth in color to the wood stocks. hope this helps. PS I do color matching for historic restoration woodwork and all i can say is ,its just wood if you dont like it sand and start again.

Sounds like a butt load of work! So only sand it so you are left with dark-stained "veins" and then stain the naked wood + 2-3 coats of poly?

 

 

 

Not exactly what you're looking for but I painted my stock. And It's name's even tougher than "butter cup"...It's called "Lady Bug" by Martha Stewart

 

 

 

Yeah, I definitely want to try and keep the coating transparent to see wood texture. But don't knock of Martha...she got prison cred!

 

 

I always wanted a BLUE furniture'd AK...

 

I know... I swear I seen one somewhere but I tried searching and didn't find anything ... could have been in my dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

If you all got pics please do post them... any suggestions on where to get dye/stain in crazy colors and good gloss polyurethane is appreciated too. Or if someone can do Photoshop magic with the colors above... I am sure many will appreciate it too.

Edited by HappYBallZ
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I did mine with grey that has blue underneath. It only shows blue in the right light and angles, kinda like tiger eye.

 

I used wood dye rather than stain because the color goes deeper. I spent a bunch of time wiping it on and buffing with steel wool until I was satisfied with the color. I passed up on a lot of cool colors because I had two different kinds of wood, and this was the only way to make them both match. I sealed it with very thick several layers of urethane and it is much more durable than the minwax stains.

 

Here's the thread. http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/72311-guide-comfortable-wood-goodness-with-a-modern-touch/ There was a parallel thread in which people gave me a lot of advice on options for wood treatment. I don't remember the name, but it was about the same time and well worth doing a google search for. Lots of good suggestions, and more than I could take. A few useful examples of how not to do it as well.


I almost went with a very deep bright blue with grey grain high lights and HK grey on the metal. I was able to get that with the beech, and with the walnut, but not both to the same levels at the same time.

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I've done many, many intarsia projects, both with natural wood shades and dyed woods. Yes I did a couple shotgun stocks in OD Green stain for duck hunter, too.

Do you have any pictures to share of your projects? Especially the more unusual colored ones.

 

I looked-up Intarsia examples... they look pretty cool, and seems to be a lot of work.

 

I have no idea what wood these things are made out of ... looks very light. Maybe pine?

 

Regrettably, I don't. Most on my old project pictures were destroyed in a flood. Those were before the days of digital cameras. I still have one of the very first ones I ever did in storage. I'll see about getting some pictures of it.

 

India Ink is a very vibrant stain on wood, as I recall.

 

For a finish, after the stain is DRY, Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil is hard to beat as a gun finish.

 

I believe most of the light colored wood that gun stocks are made from is either birch or maple. I have seen some laminated ones out of pine or poplar, and I think my Norinco SKS is Ash.

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