Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Birch stocks always blotch when ya stain em it seems

Was fugging horrible before I spent a 1/2 hr rubbing out the blotches with a blue jean rag
Still all jacked up..
Used min wax pre stain crap .
Supposed to make it even and not blotch.
Bet I woulda had same results if I had never used it.....
Schit turned out like a freshman wood shop project.
Big fat C for a grade.......

Gonna hit the dark areas of blotch with some selective straight mineral spirits.
See if it can get rid of some of it.
Dunno...
It might lift some of it out...

Pretty flustered...
Why I always liked to work with oak, red cedar, and Black walnut.

Cause I found out back in freshman wood shop.
Birch and maple suck the root IMO.....

At least I got grain showing versus the factory finish that was
Sprayed on it to completely cover tone differences and make it all look the same
Factory schitt.........

Either way
Let it dry overnight
Start the tru oil tommorow.

Is what it is.

A birch stock.........

I have some sample boards

😄😄😄😄😄

IDGAF..
😄😄😄😄😄

You got a 2"x 2" one with consistent grain and wood density.
Something perfect for a consistent shade start to finish...

Cause I want one that is totally unlike all the variances in a stock.


So I can look at it and punch myself repeatedly in the nuts.


🥴🥴🥴😄😄😄😄

Birch, maple, cherry - all blotch like a muh fugga. I've had better luck in the past with dye than stains (on furniture/cabinets). Dye can still blotch but not to the extent of pigment based stain IME.

Have never tried it but have read and know a few guys that swear by rubbing a quick layer of gel varnish on the prepped, bare piece and after working it in laying a layer of stain on immediately. Always seemed like more trouble than birch was worth to me.

As for maple and cherry I personally prefer not to stain or dye - let it be what it is or choose lumber that is the color you want is my philosophy (for furniture/cabinet work anyway).

Spray it on?

Better to use a sealer suited for the wood species and if you want some color in the stock put a dye in the finish before applying it...

Arrrrrghhhhh....

Mineral spirits
Made it more blonde.

Gonna put a light coat of stain to it again.
Set for 2 or 3 mins max.
See if I can blend it somewhat while wiping dry a little better this time.

Where is that punching self in the balls emoji..

🥴🥴🥴🥴

Thats what this min wax pre stain crap said on the label.
Birch and maple.

Arrrrrgh.....

Can't find the pics right now, but, I un-blotched a birch stock by dobbing and rubbing a black airbrush one-part hobby paint on it with a cloth. More of a dye, I suppose. Made it a uniform look, at least, and it was deemed satisfactory.

It's been reported that a talented airbrush operator can paint walnut looking grain... A few Kimber of Oregon stocks are known to have some fairly minor blank areas "decorated" in such a way.

Try Shou-sugi-ban.

If this schit dont work out to my eye when I hit the tru oil to it intially tommorow and see what it will look like wet which will be a pretty good idea of when done and "dry" a week or 2 from now.

I'm gonna tape off the checkering leave it tru oil sealed.

And tooth brush whack a mole spray paint it .
I know that works and this is just birch anyways.
Live with that for Dove season.

While I track down a Black walnut stock after deer season in january

You do nice work Rory.

Wtf Wabi.🥴🥴🥴🥴

It is a fughing abortion dude....

Look at this
Blonde with blotches after the mineral spirits fisaco..



Gotta hit the stain again.....

Use a wood conditioner, oil based for oil stains, water based for water stains.

"If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again."

That was the original plan in my mind.
Posted about it
Watched alot of vids about it.
Protecting the checkering was a concern.

I abandoned the idea.

I should have tried maybe some maluminum foil as some sort of heat sheild for it....

I got this stock mocked up to the metal and a limbsaver pad nicely now.
Cant really do much more to dimensions.


Insert punching self in nut sack emoji.......🥴🥴🥴🥴

The checkerd part looks good,,,,

Sorry jk

You remember my 3 crash and burn spray paint attempts on the plastic mossberg stock.

And then attempt # 4 toothbrush whack a mole I dreamed up.

Whack a mole came out 👍👍👍👍

Probably the route I will have to go.

It does....
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A gel stain will help some too but a wood conditioner will be most helpful. Keep in mind if you use a wood conditioner the stain will be lighter than normal, try it on a peice of scrap to figure out the darkness of stain you want.