Dan, I've not made any myself and it sounds like an adventure. However, the technique of applying the stain with heat and the really nice brown color sounds like something I used on a cornamuse kit I built some 20 years ago. My memory is a bit dim on this one, but the stain was dark, dark brown in color and came in a clear medicine bottle from a store that specialized in stuff for pioneer re-enactors. They were selling it to stain maple musket stocks and their results looked like well cared for museum pieces, with the clear part of the wood a golden honey color and the figure in the fiddle back maple a handsome dark brown. The verbal instructions were simple-- more heat, darker results. The cornamuse was made of plain, unfigured hard maple. I think I used a bare, 100watt "soft white" bulb held about 3 inches away from the wood after I'd applied the stain either with a foam brush or rubbed it on with a rag (don't remember which). I let it dry a few days then finished it with a couple coats of Formby's tung oil, also a few days apart. It really looked good. Rich, warm brown, with the grain areas darker. Over the years, I've wished I could get my hands on more of the stain for other projects, but the store closed not long after I bought the stain. The "rest of the story" is that somehow in the kit maker's making of the plastic reed or in my drilling the finger holes, something didn't work out right and just wouldn't play at pitch. One drill size at a time, I drilled the holes ever larger, until I had completely ruined the middle joint; I never could get it to pitch. I wrote the maker and they sent me a new middle joint and reed. I took great care positioning the holes, but it still doesn't want play at the proper pitch and it's excessively hard to blow. In finishing the replacement joint (probably something over a year later), I used the same stain, but the thing turned out sort of an unattractive gray-brown. Thus, I tend to think this type of stain has a limited shelf life. I've glanced quickly thru some of the blackpowder shooting magazines I've seen at gun shows, but haven't had any ads for this type of stain pop out at me. I tend to think somewhere in the blackpowder shooting community or pioneer re-enactment community, you might find some of this stuff already mixed. Good luck with your project. Best, Steve
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello. Hopefully this list is still active. I would like to know if anyone has any experience in formulating their own ferric nitrate stain and if anyone would like to offer practical observations regarding use of this staining technique. The recipe I have come across is 300mL nitric acid and 240mL hydrochloric acid combined with a handful of iron nails or scrap and then qs'd in a gallon of water. The reaction is a bit exothermic yielding ferric nitrate in an aqueous low pH solution which when applied to figured maple or sycamore with heat gives a nice figure enhancing brown color to the wood. Any comments on past experience with this as a stain? I'm aware of the various toxic hazards. Thanks, Dan. -- --
