As some of you know, I used tea for stain before. Worked out quite nicely too. The last few days I've been redoing a rifle stock, using a tea stain. Two bags, brewed down to about a quarter of a cup. Been doing nicely, except taking longer than I wanted to get as dark as I wanted. Each coat would only darken a bit, but it didn't take a huge amount of time for them to try. So, tried a bit of latex paint in the tea. No, not yellow. Red. Tried it on a piece of scrap wood first, and no, it wasn't anywhere near what I was after. Might look OK for something else tho.
So, brewed up another batch of tea, 20 minutes this time. Ah, went on a bit darker. But, still not as dark as I was after. So, looked for some food coloring. Apparently, I'd already used all of that in vegetable oil, for finishing. Which worked quite well, thank you - I've got a rocking chair, finished 6-7 years go with vegetable oil, that the finish has held up quite well. However, I did find some unsweetened Koolaid, cherry flavor. "Oh no", you cry, "he didn't actually put Koolaid in that tea, and then put it on that stock". You better believe it, Bunky.
A test on scrap came out looking great, as I was sure it would - actually it looked even better than I'd expected. The first coat on the stock darkened it more than just the straight tea had. Gave it a slight, very nice, reddish cast. It looked so good with the second coat, I decided to leave well enough alone. It's got a nice, slightly reddish, color, which should look even better once I put a finish on. I'm just waiting overnight for the last coat to dry.
Possibly, it would have looked even better if I'd used black cherry, but once I got past the lemonade flavor, and found the cherry, I never even thought about looking firther. Anyway, I'm satisfied with it as is.
I'm pondering now whether to get the paste wax from the shop tomorrow, it's rainy just now, and supposed to rain more tomorrow, Or, stay in, and use vegetable (cooking) oil for the finish.
Once I get the final finish on, and get it back together again, I'll take a picture. I've got a web page recording what I've done, and I'll put it up there, then post the link later.
Damn. I just thought. What I should have done, was ask here first, if the Koolaid would work. That probably would have generated a nice lengthy thread. LMAO
JOAT The Truth Shall Set Ye Frea