Tinting or darkening a stock

[Portzy]

Hello, I don't often post in this section but thought that it would be the ideal place to ask. I have a walnut stocked rifle which, whilst having a "reasonable" grain pattern, is a bit of a plain jane when it comes to shade in that it's a bit on the light or blondish in places side of things.

To take things down a tad I wondered if frequent applications of typical Parker Hale walnut oil would do the trick or is there something that I can add, a dye?, to the oil to speed things up yet get to the result that I am after in stages.

Thank You.

[Mr Pusk]

The traditional thing for Walnut is Alkanet oil. Various people make it. Have a search online and on youtube. Mind you I'm not sure that just rubbing it on makes a big difference - probably depends on what the existing finish is. You might need to strip it off and refinish.

[Craig-P]

VanDyke crystals, mixed to desired level and then Alkanet oil.

[thisisdonald]

It depends what finish is on your stick at present. Just for arguments sake, if its varnished, you can rub what you like into it all day, I doubt it will penetrate the wood... that said, it's most likely not varnished if its walnut 🤞
If I were you, I'd be tempted to take it back to wood before attempting to darken it.
If it has an oil finish, you can remove this by simply rubbing it with good paper towels and surgical spirit.
Boiled linseed oil will darken wood as you add layers , and gives a handsome finish which can be left glossy or knocked back to satin or matt. Only thing with that is it takes a while and isn't practical when it's really humid.
Alkanet root is nice, but gives a reddish hue which might not be what you are after.
You can use dyes, but you might find that you've spend a fair bit before finding the one you like, it's hard to tell just looking at the can, what it's going to be like on your stock.
My advise is go light first and layer up to get darker. Use alcohol based dyes as they dont raise the grain as much as water based dyes.
Make sure you are happy with the colour before you start your oil finish if you are going to dye the stock.. once you start oiling, that's it. You can add warmth to dye colours by adding yellow or red. You can use alkanet root here or you cam soak teabags in some alcohol for a few days to get a yellow tint.

I would finish with a nice hand rubbed oil. Theres plenty oils out there , tung oil and tru-oil are more like varnish so avoid them unless that's what you want. A real oil finish makes your stock maintainable - easy to steam out a fresh dent and re- oil targeted spots. And it can become part of your yearly or bi- annual maintenance... s hand rubbed layer of oil once orvtwice a year will really make your stock last forever and give it a unique classy look.

[Portzy]

At the moment the stock is, I believe, linseed oil finished walnut so from what I am reading there is no need to strip anything off? I think I will give the alcanet a go because a darker, maybe a redish/brown hue is what I am looking for.

So, do I just add a few drops of the alcanet to the walnut oil that already have and build up the depth of colour in stages or, do I need to be more liberal with the mix.

Thank You.

[thisisdonald]

I would try adding it to some more boiled linseed oil... the more layers of BLO you add the darker it will get

[ikarma70]

I would strip the old finish back to the bare wood and then use the finest grade wet/dry paper with water to polish the wood and you may find you have lifted the tiger striping out of the grain and you should end up with a glass like finish.

Wipe with white spirit and leave to dry for a day or 2, at this point I use danish oil and this stuff will add a darker tint (you can get coloured danish oils IIRC)
The first coat will get absorbed in seconds, now you buff with a clean rag and repeat the oil and buffing till you are satisfied.

Walnut responds very nicely to the heat from your hands when you rub the oil in and danish oil is quite cheap.