Ammonia fumed gunstock anyone?

[DUNKS]

Hi has anyone tried Ammonia fuming a Walnut gunstock to bring out the grain and darken the wood.?

 I have done this several times with good results. Here is my latest efforts. 

A recently bought Webley MK3 Which appears to have hardly been used had a horrible brown stock so I decided to strip it and see if I could improve it. 

Ammonia fumes have the effect of darkening the tannin in wood. This tannin is not evenly distributed in the wood and the darker bits have lots, so go darker. Beech does not go much darker but Walnut is ideal. Ammonia in concentrated form is difficult to buy now so the weaker household strength has to be used 10% which takes several days instead of hours.

First photo is gun stripped and sanded to 600 grit. Some decent grain can be seen. later photos are stock fumed for several days and now finished with Napier London gunstock finish to just below shiny.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

Edited October 23 by DUNKS

[Shambam1962]

Well done I like that very much 👍

is it difficult to do ?

[ditchman]

15 minutes ago, Shambam1962 said:

Well done I like that very much 👍

is it difficult to do ?

lol i know what you are thinking.........

ammonia is a useful tool.....my uncle used to buy Ballinese bronze sculptures (new ones) and he would then put them in an oven with a bowl of ammonia and leave them for a few hours.....when he took them out they had oxidised and looked a couple of hunded years old......

Edited October 23 by ditchman

[DUNKS]

4 hours ago, Shambam1962 said:

Well done I like that very much 👍

is it difficult to do ?

Nope just suspend item in a container with saucer of Ammonia.

[wisdom]

That has come up very nicely.Never heard of that method.

[Shambam1962]

1 hour ago, DUNKS said:

Nope just suspend item in a container with saucer of Ammonia.

Thanks Dunks, I will try it out.

I was looking earlier at a different thread  Ebonized Oak on a wood working forum and will try this out as well at a later date.

[DUNKS]

7 minutes ago, Shambam1962 said:

Thanks Dunks, I will try it out.

I was looking earlier at a different thread  Ebonized Oak on a wood working forum and will try this out as well at a later date.

Hi I read that oak is the best wood to darken eventually going black. Do try to get some 30% Ammonia but keep nose and eyes well away from it.😁

Edited October 23 by DUNKS

[ditchman]

interesting

[claydodger]

Never heard of it either, Iv'e done a few stocks using different stains, teak and danish oil but the come up as good as that.

[John_R]

Looks good, does the ammonia work on other woods? 

The ebonising works on quite a few , those with higher tannin content are best. I have a jar of white vinegar with steel wool in it, many months old, which works pretty much immediately.

[DUNKS]

10 hours ago, John_R said:

Looks good, does the ammonia work on other woods? 

The ebonising works on quite a few , those with higher tannin content are best. I have a jar of white vinegar with steel wool in it, many months old, which works pretty much immediately.

Ammonia works on the tannin so any wood with tannin will darken.