Using leather dye to stain a gun stock before finishing

[pertnear]

I have a Rem 722 with a stock that needs refinishing. It has been a while, but in the past I have used Friebings leather dye to get the color I wanted before final finishing. My question is, if I think the dye is too dark on my test piece, can the dye be diluted with something to lighten it?

[LAGS]

Is that the Alcohol or water based die.
I have thinned leather die that was Alcohol based and it worked fine.
But I don't know if thinning it will make the final wood finish as light as you want.

[stubshaft]

I've thinned it with alcohol to lighten it up.

[Geezer in NH]

Most leather dyes are alcohol base

[practical_man]

I thin leather dye with alcohol for our projects

I also like Rit fabric dye for use on stocks. The green looks awesome on most hardwoods.

[Cap'n Morgan]

I got the best results using water-based dye. If you dilute the dye a bit, you can use several coatings and let the stock dry in between.
In my opinion it makes for a more even result.

[Jeff R]

What kind of alcohol would you use to dilute the dye?

[36g]

What kind of alcohol would you use to dilute the dye?

Easiest (and overall cheapest) is to get some alcohol fuel in the paint aisle at your local hardware store. It's denatured ethanol (ethyl alcohol). The denatured part just means that it's ethyl alcohol that has something added to it to make it unsuitable for drinking. There are multiple formulations to do that as prescribed by the BATF.