Refinish Birch Stock - Iron Acetate

Decided to do some "old school" refinishing on my 110 Birch stock. Wood staining with Iron Acetate goes back more than a hundred years.
Birch can be tough to stain, which is likely why Savage used a lacquer with a stain in the lacquer rather than in the wood. Corners become lighter over time, hides the grain, not ideal.

1) Stripped the old original lacquer stain finish.
2) Sanded / smoothed old stock, bare birch. The stock was very, very light in color
3) Made a tannin tea with alcohol, let it steep for 3 days and nights
4) Made an Iron Acetate stain from vinegar and old iron nails, let it "cook" for 5 days and nights
5) Applied / soaked the tannin tea into the birch, to add tannins. 5 applications, allowed to dry in between
6) Dewhiskered the wood with 400 paper
7) Applied 3 applications of Iron Acetate onto the tannin stained birch
8) At this point, the stock was fully ebonized, and was completely black
9) Let is sit for 4 hours
10) Sanded down the now ebonized wood until the amount of brown/grey/black was what I desired
11) Applied 10 coats of Tru-Oil, with 24hrs between coats.

The birch grain popped nicely, and the stain is in the wood, not in the finish.
This is a hunting rifle, not a showpiece, I am quite pleased with how it came out.

https://i.imgur.com/MqafAQw.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/wzXPP22.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/0IQbRxx.jpg?1

I like it too. Fine job.

Great job...looks very nice!

Buck_up where did you find all the info and recipes/ cooking instructions for this Tannin project? For a hunting rifle you must be very pleased with the outcome. It looks great.

Sweet!

Going back to the old muzzle loader days of stock/wood finishing. Good job.:cool::cool:

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Originally Posted by gumbo333

Buck_up where did you find all the info and recipes/ cooking instructions for this Tannin project? For a hunting rifle you must be very pleased with the outcome. It looks great.

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Found all the "ebonizing" info on various woodworking forums. For the Tannin Tea, I didn't have any "tree bark from a rare Amazonian tree" so I simply used 4 Tetley tea bags, steeped in 70% USP Isopropyl alcohol. The stock was literally black as a boot prior to sanding, so the tannin content must be high in Tetley Tea. This was a trial run, I really had nothing to lose, the stock was ugly as he11 prior to starting the work.

The iron acetate, couldn't be simpler. White vinegar, a bunch of old rusty iron nails, and let it sit for days. I poured it through a coffee filter prior to applying to the wood, to keep any iron or rust bits out.

Seems like I read something about steel wool and alcohol working the same way?

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Originally Posted by Nor Cal Mikie

Seems like I read something about steel wool and alcohol working the same way?

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Steel Wool and vinegar. Only caution, is that steel wool comes with some oil on it. One would have to degrease the steel wool prior to putting into the vinegar, to get good results. That is why I chose iron nails instead of steel wool. Any iron will work.

That is a good looking stock!

Have been thinking about a Boyd laminate for my 111 that is getting a new barrel. Trying to do it cheap, though, as a challenge, and still come out with a good looking rifle. Will probably end up Cerakoting the metal. Refinishing the stock would be a good option, but may go with paint because don't have any that are painted.

Also, walnut shells and tree bark. You can come up with some pretty nice colors.
Even tea bags. No cream or sugar.;)

A little Brake Parts Cleaner will get rid on any oil on steel wool.

thanks for sharing, cool technique.

Hummmmm, that nice looking stock from some old rusty nails, who would have thunk it.

I had one that looked very similar, years ago. Was out hunting and leaned it up against the old tree to take a leak, when I turned around to pick it up, it was gone. :noidea:

Blended in so well, I couldn't see it.

Moral, don't lean your beautiful old skills shoot'n iron up against a tree.

Nice!

Three44s

That's beautiful!

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You did some fine work on that stock!:tea::thumb:

That's one heck of a beautiful looking stock.

David

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