Winchester Red finish History? - 02/14/21
Sorry if this has been covered before, I usually don't read this section and a search came up with nothing.
I have duplicated this with a number of different methods both natural and spirit stains. But I am curious about the evolution of this color. I know the origins of the finishing of old flint locks but there is sort of a gap between the very earliest finishes to when they started putting the god awful muddy stain on the latest editions.
What I understand is there is a progression from: Alkanet root, Garnet shellac, Dragons blood, madder or other traditional stains & red lead, then at some point they started using the red dye used to mark farm fuel. Around this time Winchester also went from staining the wood to staining the finish, if I am correct on this. Later things were replaced by aniline dyes. What I am curious about is what was used from the turn of the century to the war time era finishes? The transitional period is where I have lost track of what Winchester was using. Anybody have any information on this?
I have duplicated this with a number of different methods both natural and spirit stains. But I am curious about the evolution of this color. I know the origins of the finishing of old flint locks but there is sort of a gap between the very earliest finishes to when they started putting the god awful muddy stain on the latest editions.
What I understand is there is a progression from: Alkanet root, Garnet shellac, Dragons blood, madder or other traditional stains & red lead, then at some point they started using the red dye used to mark farm fuel. Around this time Winchester also went from staining the wood to staining the finish, if I am correct on this. Later things were replaced by aniline dyes. What I am curious about is what was used from the turn of the century to the war time era finishes? The transitional period is where I have lost track of what Winchester was using. Anybody have any information on this?