What is your preferred commercially available stain for a highly figured black walnut stock for a Winchester High Wall?

I don't know why you would want to use a stain on a highly figured piece of walnut. Stains can be dangerous because once they are applied you'll go through hell to remove them. You can't really spot test them on a stock unless you have a test piece of the same wood. Different wood gives different results even in the same species. Many of the old gun makers used varnish and this is fine if properly applied and it can be removed if necessary. The best finish for a nice piece of walnut is without a doubt a rubbed linseed oil finish. This takes time but remember that you'll be looking at it for a long time so it's worth the effort. You can read how this is done from dozens of sources but one thing to remember above all else is DON'T BUY HARDWARE STORE OR BOX STORE CRAP.  High quality linseed oil and finishes can be had through specialty woodworking sources and artist's supply companies. I could extol the virtues of an oil finish all day but ask yourself this, why are oil finishes used by the best gunmakers in the world? Does your stock deserve less?

I agree, don’t use stain on fancy black walnut, it will just muddy it.  At times I see nice black walnut with just finish and it is kind of plain and flat looking, with no depth to it.  Black walnut can be beautiful when done to highlight its figure.

Some times colorants are needed, I use dyes which do a better job of penetrating into the wood rather than laying on top.

The goal with figured walnut is to darken what I call short grain, which is end grain rising up into the side of the stock.  The curl in curly maple is a good example of this.  Just using finish does not always accomplish this.

Each piece of wood usually requires a different process.

Here are three examples of figured black walnut.  One of California English.

The first has a couple coats of red oil then finished with oil but not linseed oil.  I believe this one is Chambers oil.

The second has dyes applied and still not what I wanted.  I used yellow, black and a brownish/red dyes.  Then finished with oil.  I started with Chambers but finished with Timberlux.  I don’t use Chambers any more because of swirls I get when hand rubbing it, it drys to fast.  They are very hard to remove.

The third has a couple coats of red oil then Chambers and final finished with Timberlux.

The last is the English with several coats of red oil and finish totally with Timberlux.  It has 17 coats of finish.

As you can see, in each rifle the darker grain is the short grain, which takes the colorant more aggressively, and become darker than the surrounding wood.  This along side the lighter, long grain, is what give the beautiful depth to the wood when finished.

I’m not saying this is the correct or only way, just how I finish wood.
Bob

I really enjoyed posts by Jim D on the Marlin forum while he was still active.  His shared knowledge on color case hardening have been often referred to on this forum, but in another of his posts he described an interesting method for staining walnut.  That post can be found at:  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Here's a Borchardt I built that had very little visible grain and would have been quite bland if just finished with a clear oil finish.  I first used a paste filler to bring out the grain called French Red followed by a mix of water color stain then finished with Laurel Mountain Forge which is no longer available.

toppkatt wrote on Nov 5^th, 2026 at 2:07pm:

Their website says #2 is faster drying.

toppkatt wrote on Nov 5^th, 2026 at 2:07pm:


Yes, the #2 I believed is for higher humidity climates. I’ve never used it.

Either finish can be fairly glossy, or not, depending on how much you work them.  The problem I always had with Chambers is, as I worked it and it dried, I got swirls that were hard to remove.  The Timberlux stays smooth all the way to where it feels dry to the touch as I rub it in.  I never worry about dust or anything else settling in the finish because it is basically dry when I’m done.  I also never have a need to buff the finish in anyway between coats.  Anytime I have buffed the finish I can see it and subsequent coats don’t fill the marks left from buffing.
Bob