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burn-stripe a gunstock

swampthing36
Anybody out there ever put a tiger strip pattern on a plain piece of walnut? I am wondering if it can be done with a propane torch. Somebody told me once it was done with a rope wrapped around the stock. I have a plain jane walnut stock on a commercial mauser that I'd like to add some interest to. Any ideas???????[?]
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10 comments

Date Votes
  • countryfarmer
    From what I remember reading about it, a rope was soaked with some type of chemical and then wrapped around the stock. I can't remember what the chemical was. There was no fire involved in it, just a chemical "stain" for lack of a better word.
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  • lcdrdanr
    I tried it once with a propane torch on a 10/22 stock. The stock turned out like a weiner left on a bar b que grill for a minute too long. Frustrated, I sanded it out and stained it.
    I do remember my dad using an old style blowtorch on plywood to "bring out the grain" before varnishing the plywood, he was building 47 tables for a church parish hall. It did bring out the grain, maybe it was the wood and maybe it was the blowtorch, didn't concentrate the heat like a propane torch does.
    Dan R
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  • dogtown tom
    Dixie Gun Works used to have a method that the showed in their catalog.
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  • Blairweescot
    quote:Originally posted by lcdrdanr
    I tried it once with a propane torch on a 10/22 stock. The stock turned out like a weiner left on a bar b que grill for a minute too long. Frustrated, I sanded it out and stained it.
    I do remember my dad using an old style blowtorch on plywood to "bring out the grain" before varnishing the plywood, he was building 47 tables for a church parish hall. It did bring out the grain, maybe it was the wood and maybe it was the blowtorch, didn't concentrate the heat like a propane torch does.
    Dan R


    Probably an alcohol torch, too
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  • swampthing36
    quote:Originally posted by countryfarmer
    From what I remember reading about it, a rope was soaked with some type of chemical and then wrapped around the stock. I can't remember what the chemical was. There was no fire involved in it, just a chemical "stain" for lack of a better word.


    I wonder what the chemical was. Hmm. Any of you guys have a notion?
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  • mrbruce
    It can be done with a propane torch, just go easy till you get the hang of it...
    Might help to practice on another piece before you start on the stock...
    Even a 2x4 will get you started in the right direction.....
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  • He Dog
    Isn't the char going to rub off like crazy? Going to need some coats of varnish after the torch.
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  • dandak1
    quote:Originally posted by swampthing36
    quote:Originally posted by countryfarmer
    From what I remember reading about it, a rope was soaked with some type of chemical and then wrapped around the stock. I can't remember what the chemical was. There was no fire involved in it, just a chemical "stain" for lack of a better word.


    I wonder what the chemical was. Hmm. Any of you guys have a notion?


    I believe it was cotton cord soaked in a saltpeter and water solution, then allowed to dry. This makes it a "slow wick" that a lot of the matchlock users used. Good luck trying to find saltpeter (potassium nitrate) now. Used to be able to buy it at the drugstore as a canning item. Now if you ask for it youd probably have the local guys documenting your moves.
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  • firstharmonic
    Here's what Turner Kirkland had to say in his 1983 Dixie Gun Works catalog about striping a stock:

    "Artificial Tiger Stripe: What I think they used was a 50 percent solution of water and muriatic acid with iron filings or steel wool dissolved in the solution and this was striped on and allowed to penetrate the wood which in two or three months, through a chemical reaction, changed to an oxide and became dark."


    Ive never tried this method. But dogtown tom mentioned it so I thought I'd look it up, and here it is. Procede at your own risk.
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  • Robin
    No need to go to the drug store for potassium nitrate. Most companies that sell fertilizer have it in 40 lb bags. I use it by the ton in making liquid fertilizer and never had any problems from and fine folks from the government. Although i understand my supplier has to keep up with the ammonium nitrate and pottasium nitrate they sell. FYI, a mixture of pottasium nitrate, sulfur and fine charcoal = black gun powder.
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