Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Popping Figure in Walnut

I picked up this old semi inlet Fajen stock from a darn good guy here on the 'fire. I'm currently working on a Greek Mannlicher project, that someone had started sporterizing a few years ago. The gun has a 25" barrel with a great bore and a slick action. Plans include changing the swept back "butter knife" bolt handle to the more classic vertical one, adding some sporter sights, a banded sling swivel, and maybe a rust blue. The stock had already had some tinkering done to it and it appears someone tried to use bedding compound to force fit their action into the semi-inlet. I ground out most of the bedding compound and more properly inlet the action into the wood. I also sawed off the high monte Carlo comb and smoothed out the top of the stock to be more iron sight friendly. I'm planning to add some ebony pieces to the stock, but for now I'm sanding the other areas and trying to make the figure "pop". I've been using a Transtint aniline dye with a light concentration in 50/50 distilled water and denatured alcohol solution. I apply to the wood, allow it to dry and give it a light sanding. My hope is that the figured grain will more readily take up the dye solution and through repeated applications, darken much more than the surrounding wood. Any thoughts? I'm no expert at this by any means but I have refinished a few stocks. I'm always open to hearing ideas, tricks and tips...