stock stain

HI,
Making progress with my 'new' 03 assembly. The stock is an unusual one, the National Match Special design, which uses the 1922 buttstock end and the full length military style front end. I bought the butt plate from Numrich 30 years back, and have been looking for a stock for years and finally found one, the last one the maker had in stock, and he plans to not do these anymore.

There is a touch of light color running thru part of the walnut stock, and I would like to darken the whole thing up some. I have seen the use of Chestnut Ridge stain used by a friend years back which was great looking, but it appears to have been discontinued. Brownells lists several military stock type stains, but with very mixed reviews. Does anyone here have staining suggestions, either commercial product or home brewed to darken the light area up some?

This has been a fun project, my first real inletting job, tho I must say it was pretty well done by the shop right out of the box.

Bob

Attachment 50333

Do not use an oil-based stain, such as Minwax. Use a water-based stain, or as a second choice, an alcohol-based stain. Oil-based stains do not produce uniform results. I'll let others chime in on specific recommendations.

J.B.

I have used the Fiebings leather dyes from Tandy leather with good results. Sometimes you need a couple of different colors to get what you want. I don't know if they are alcohol based but there are flammable warnings on the box. Jim

Use Fleibling brown dye on M1 Birch stock when I re-barreled to 7.62mm.

Now have a M14 Stock {thick wood] returned from re-bedding, so i can participate in some OTC hi-power matches.