Matching stain

[mattd]

Finally got some wood for my mini 14 from a member here. Had to do some inletting to get it to fit just right (might as well bed now right).

It's an oil finish, not the typical mini finish. Looks very much like the same color of any other old surplus rifle. The look wasn't exactally what I was expecting but is growing on me. Would like to match the parts I had to inlet and not redo the whole thing. It appears to be birch. Any suggestions.

96180

[UBER7MM]

MattD,
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You can always stain again darker, but not lighter. Also, the end grit of sanded finish will affect the finish as well. (The part of the stock you've finish will take the stain if you've used 600 grit paper and the original stock was finished with 400 for example.) The color appears to be walnut. Experiment with colors (walnut) on the top that covered with the forearm guard.
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Having said that, honestly, you may be saving yourself a lot of aggravation by sanding the whole stock down to the bare birch to start the stain process from there.
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Looks like you're almost there with a beautiful project.

[xrider472]

Looks good. What type of rear sight is that?

[mattd]

just the factory one. plastic peep. its shaped like an L....peep hole on vertical part, fork on bottom horizontal part that connects to elev adjusting screw. its broke right at the angle and the peep part just sits on top of the other part. soon to be a tech sight.

[Whiterabbit]

MattD,
.Having said that, honestly, you may be saving yourself a lot of aggravation by sanding the whole stock down to the bare birch to start the stain process from there.
.
Looks like you're almost there with a beautiful project.

I hate to concur because this was not your question. But I agree completely. If you are looking for something that goes bang when you pull the trigger, a workhorse, the project that always looks like a project, then you're almost there. If you want the kind of rifle that makes you and other people think "oh!" when you pull it out of the case, then I fear you may be stuck taking it down to bare wood and finishing it over again.

[Bloodman14]

Yep, sand down and start over.

[mattd]

One piece of pertinent info I left out was that it wasn't finished, just stained. It was sold to me as a factory oil finished rifle. I first thought maybe it just had one coat of oil finish, that really didnt show much. But after looking it over pretty good you can see the original finish under the butt plate, and everything else is just the stain. And I got it to match perfectly!

First I went to a wood hobby shop, not the hardware store. They suggested two colors of gel stain to mix and test to get it just right. It went on easy and matches well enuf that I touched up a few additional spots and you can't even tell there is a diff there.

Now does anyone have a chunk of birch I can use to make a wooden hand guard before my stain mix dries:wink:

96499

[wild bill wildbill59]

Coming out nice man.

[mattd]

well, the stock was a little wide around the gas block. i had so much confidence in the match of the stain that i sanded it down to be flush with the GB and then re-stained. the color was a good match, but the rest of the stock was rough sanded and the area i worked on was smooth. so i took the whole thing down, re-stained, and am much happier with the final product. the gel stain went on well, it has a great color and i put the first coat of tung oil finish on last nite.