Originally Posted by FredWillis
Take about 4 or 5 tea bags and boil the heck out of them. Then take a brush and cover the stock. That provides tannic acid to the stock.
Next put the stock into a small enclosed area like a box, and fill a small container with ammonia. The ammonia will impact with the tannic acid and give the color you are looking for . It especially works well with fiddleback as the contrast is great. Try it on a sample and see what it does to maple.

I have used this method on numerous maple stocks.


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Ammonia fuming is what I used on the A5 above.
Be forewarned. The process is not reversible. Unlike stains and dyes, it cannot be sanded off. The wood will be altered through and through.

"There are three kinds of men
Those who learn by reading
The few who learn by observing
The rest have to pee on the
electric fence and find out
for themselves."