M14 Forum

Charlene32

i was thinking about adding a wood handguard to match one of my tiger birches. i know they only offer wood handguards in walnut, but i was wondering if it would be possible to do some sort of faux finish on the wood to mottle it up a bit and make it look 'birch like'. ive heard hitting the wood with a torch will do it, but i also want to match the color some what.

also, anyone ever have any experience with hydrographics using a wood grain pattern? found this site: http://outdoorhydrographics.com/patt...ry=8&nggpage=5

i also have not ruled out the idea of just having a solid color wood handguard and try to match the walnut to the birch color with a single stain.

here is my collection of tigers, so you can see what type of marks i would try to duplicate. speaking of which.....i need to sell some of these stocks, as i only need one. also, where is the best place to get a wood handguard. i saw that Fulton Armory sells them for $30.

03psd

no suggestions but a gorgeous collection of stocks you have.

geepee3

www.Boydsgunstocks.com has walnut finished handguards for $32.00.
Around mid-summer they had unfinished handguards for about $18.00 then went up to $22.00 a month later. I was able to get two at the lower price when they came out.
Right now all they have is the finished handguards. Every now and then they have the M1A stocks and handguards on sale. You just need to watch the site or get on their Email list.
As to staining false tiger stripes, I can not help you there.

Glenn

1KPerDay

Wow! tasty tigers up there.

Gus Fisher

Artificial wood graining techniques for walnut was brought to high art in the late 18th and early 19th century. If you ever get a chance to go through Andy Jackson's home, The Hermitage close to Nashville; it was done all over the place, but especially on furniture, doors and some other architectural elements. Andy had an artist come from France to do it, as I remember. That artist actually painted grain on clear wood and it is not easy to see that it was done. The day I was there, I put a hankerchief over my mouth and nose and almost had my nose stuck to some doors and other things when I was examining it closely. Grin.

You don't have to be a 19th century artist to do the work, but it DOES require a good deal of time to study and figure out what you want to do. It REALLY takes a good deal of time to make it look real, though, and that's why very few people do it today. Labor costs would make it totally impractical.

I have tried using various liquid stains in many different ways to do it and I NEVER got something satisfactory. I have found the black permanent magic markers with the TINY points will work to add some grain look and Tru Oil won't completely pull it off. I have found it is better to take a small wad of paper towels and ball them up then dip the wad in some acetone. Then squeeze out all the Acetone you can. Then VERY LIGHTLY sort of swish it on and off the marks. If you have ever seen someone "French Polish" furniture, the technique is very similar, though you use a lighter touch then when French Polishing. This will keep the magic marker color from looking TOO shiny when the finish is applied.

I would suggest trying it on some scrap walnut and if you come up with something you think will look good on handguards with enough experience, then do it on handguards. I do this FIRST and then lightly apply stain over it and later on the Tru Oil. Oh, many folks who do this will use a glaze to do the graining and that is not a good way to do it for gunstocks in my experience. You may wish to do a google search on "Artificially Graining Wood."

However, because it is so time consuming, I'm not interested in trying to do it for others.

Charlene32

gus:

thank you for your in-depth input. i had and idea that the project would be next to impossible. i even considered scouting for a damaged tiger birch stock to make a hadguard from the fore end.....but then the work would be in the crafting of the wood to make a measured fit. one way or the other, my dream is of something that doesnt exist. the history of the M14 and it's wooden handguard exists with the spawning of a walnut stock and handuard............ and to match a mottled or striped birch stock with a wood handguard is a tough task to undertake but dang would it look good.

i checked out LAW483 Enterprises website and they do some good work in terms of custom made stocks. i think i saw a striped cherry m14 stock with matching striped wood handguard and man did it look good. i understand from what you have told me that there is a great amount of work, patience and artistry to pull off what i want. i have not ruled out matching a solid color wood handguard to match my birch but it would be nice if i could get the walnut to at least look like birch (ie yellow and red tones).

as of the moment i am considering my options and your input shed a light on that. i will weight my options and capabilities and come up with a finished product. thanks.

Gus Fisher

BTW, IF you can find a BROWN permanent magic marker (and that can be pretty darn hard to do at times) you can also use that to grain the wood. Sharpie and Avery both make brown color markers, but you probably will have to order them.

If you can find a light colored walnut handguard, you can add yellow tones with Fiebings Yellow or British Tan leather dye. Actually the British Tan might be better for what you want to do as it has a LOT of yellow tone to it. Depending on what shade of red you need; they have oxblood, mahoghany, burgandy and maroon - I would not use the Red or Dark Red.

I realize this may seem strange, but if you have a Tandy Leather store close to you, you might wish to take JUST the stock in there AFTER you sand it down. HOWEVER, ask them BEFORE you walk into the store with it and explain you are looking for dyes to match the colors of the wood. Some stores have a piece of leather with the colors already on it and if so, that might be of great benefit. If the color you want is in between a dye color they have, choose the slightly darker shade. Then AFTER you use the British Tan or Yellow, you can mix some of it with the darker shade of dye in small quantities to get a closer color. EDITED to add: This may not have been easy to understand. Poor a small amount of the darker dye, like a Tablespoon or two, in say a small plastic bowl. Then add a few drops of the British Tan. Mix that up and try it on the UNDERSIDE of the handguard to see how it looks. Mix more British Tan, if you need to and try it in another spot on the UNDERSIDE of the handguard. This until you get the color match. After you get the color match. Go over the whole underside of the handguard with the original dark color dye to hide your experiments. Grin.

If you use leather dye, then buy some small/cheap regular artists brushes and I would suggest at least two or three. You want a fairly soft bristle, but don't buy the most expensive ones. This will allow you to put smaller quantities of stain and for better placement.

I mentioned sanding the stock down as that will give you a better idea for color matching before you stain the handguard. Also, when I am matching colors on Garand stocks and handguards - I have always found it better to put at least a very thinned amount of the same base stain on all three pieces.

tailgunner 1952

Charlene,
Very nice stocks/rifle. There are some good ideas posted in the replies.
We had a gentleman shooting with us in the middle 80's that had several beautiful stocked M1's. They had been stocked by someone in Cali. They were very light wood with reddish brown stripes like the tigers you pic'd. He told me that they were bleached out first and the stripes were done with Mercurochrome ? Several years ago I tried to do a birch M1 Carbine stock same way but instead of stripes I just filled in the grain pattern. It did not turn out as dazzling as the M1 stocks I remembered, but the finish is still holding up. I hope you send in pics of results that you get as I have a couple of birch M14 stocks that need a little work.

edward5759

I worked on making tiger stripe "anything" by taking chunks of different woods and trying staining ETC. I taught high school wood shop for 27 years. I even had a contest every year for 12 movie tickets for a student who could duplicate it. I had parents would get a tiger striped walnut block and bring it in for there kid saying they did it! I guess movie tickets were a hot thing. Oh well we never got it. the elusive tiger was never caught.

Ed

glockshot

I got chromium trioxide I think it is called from dixie gun works.It is very nasy stuff,but works well for striping.I enhanced the tiger on a stock and did a hand gard to match...glock