Stock finish

[Alan Kowalsky]

I have always admired the beautiful stocks and forearms on the higher grade guns such as the Parker.
Did Parker and others, use stain before the topcoat ?
I have never been able to duplicate the "reddish" color that many of the fancy
walnut stocks have. I noticed that many of the older antique firearms posess this red coloration.
How do they transform what starts as basically a brown walnut stock ?

[Rick Losey]

Dragon's Blood (a plant based stain) was used for some antiques

this says it matches the classic finishes

http://www.midwayusa.com/Product/879307/pilkington-classic-gunstock-finish-red-brown-2-oz-liquid

when trying to get the right color on a flintlock, I normally experiment with combinations of the laurel mountain forge stains on wood scraps

[Dean Romig]

One of the reviewers says he likes alkanet root stain for the deeper red of original finishes and that the product he reviewed did not achieve the red coloration he was hoping for.

[Alan Kowalsky]

The quest of over 40 years is starting to pay off. I suspect that many firearm companies kept their secrets closely guarded.
I am trying to search for a supplier for "Dragon's Blood" stain. I will gladly post my results here, if I find the right one.

An interesting note- Stradivarius violins were at times, stained with Dragon's Blood.

[Dean Romig]

An interesting note- Stradivarius violins were at times, stained with Dragon's Blood.

Well then, Parker shotguns, being easily of equal quality, should be finished in the same manner. :bowdown:

[Dean Romig]

Austin Hogan had discussed original finishes of Parker shotguns and methods to use today to duplicate or refresh them a number of times on the forum - possibly on the old forum - but I don't recall any Parker Pages article on this topic. Possibly a forum search might turn something up.

Austin discussed "French Polish" which I believe is shellac mixed with one or two other products.... and he said that shellac could be found in various color hues as it was made from the dust of ground beetle shells - the hue dependant on the specie of beetle.

[John Campbell]

Dean and others are hitting around very close to it.

All the high end guns -- Parker and otherwise -- had stained stocks. Thus in any refinish the stock must be re-stained to look right.

But... each company had its own form of stain. Almost all English gun stocks were stained with an alkanet root stain, usually extracted by soaking in some concoction of linseed oil and God knows what. This was sometimes called Dragon's Blood.

Usually, French polish is shellac, boiled linseed oil, and a lot of rubbing.

[Dave Suponski]

I printed out Austins article on stock finishing. I will post it here in a bit.

[Dave Suponski]

Here ya go.Cick on the image to enlarge it.

[Patrick Hanna]

I have no knowledge of how gunstocks were stained red. But I've been staining everything else I've made out of walnut with a red tint for about 40 years. I did read the attachment on the most recent post. I just want to disagree with the notion that a true French Polish can be applied in less than a day in a dust storm. Yes, shellac can be padded on very quickly. A true French Polish requires patience. Go to YouTube and use the search term "French Polish" and watch some classical guitars or some cabinets being finished and you will see what I mean. I suspect we are dealing with marketspeak when we read or hear the term "French Polish". I am pretty familiar with marketspeak. If I have just poked a hornet's nest, I apologize. Nevertheless, there is a difference between padding shellac and French Polishing it.

[Bruce Day]

So, are there those that believe that these original Parker stocks were stained with alkanet?

[Bruce Day]

Some were, but not all:

[John Campbell]

Just to clarify my earlier post, which may not have been easily understood:

I have no idea of what Parker used in terms of stain. Each of the old gun companies seemed to have their own. Sometimes they mixed it or had it mixed/made to their wishes.

It might have included alkanet root. Or not.

Winchester's stain included black walnut husks.

In England, alkanet stain was common. That's all I meant to point out.

Again, Parker's stain could have been anything...

[allen newell]

BD, that's beautiful wood !