Black refinish

[Ojaileveraction]

I thought I remembered thread concerning refinishing and the subject of a black refinish came up.
Is there a formula for black.
I want to refinish a Glenfield Mod 60 that I modified for the Club Silhouette Shoot.
I mounted a Williams receiver sight and had to remove some wood on the side of the receiver.
I think a smooth black finish would look great.

[Mistered]

Is the a formula for black.

Yes there is.

Google either Du-Lite 3-0 process, black chrome or Oxiblak.

These were processes that were used on various post '64 Winchesters depending on the steel that was used for a particular receiver.

I do not know much about them such as the application procedures but look into them and you might learn something!

[Ojaileveraction]

Thank you for that MistereEd.
Very technical and way beyond my interest.

I'm thinking of stock refinishing.

Rereading I see how it is confusing.

[Mistered]

I'm thinking of stock refinishing.

I totally thought you were referring to the metal parts.

Should be a few options to do something like this to wood - much easier than metal for sure!

Seems like I saw a stock one time that had a 'home' accomplished smooth black finish but I have no idea what it was.

[clovishound]

What kind of wood is it?
There is a process called "ebonizing" for staining wood a deep black. It involves soaking steel wool in vinegar. After the iron has been dissolved, the liquid is applied to the wood. Note, the wood must have some tannin in it. Woods like oak and walnut do best. Woods like maple require tannin to be added to the wood. Once the ebonizing fluid is applied, a chemical reaction takes place between the iron in it, and the tannin in the wood. It will slowly turn black. Do a search for ebonizing wood and you will get more info than you can deal with.

Or just get some black dye or stain.

[Mistered]

Or just get some black dye or stain.

Man this sounds like the easiest way!
Then apply a semi-gloss polyurethane coating and polish when completed.
Easy deal.

[Ojaileveraction]

It's a Glenfield rifle so the wood is not walnut.
It's a hard wood birch I think.
Looked up how to ebonize wood.
Looks pretty straight forward.
I'm going to give it a try.

[Sir Henry]

I applied black leather dye to a stock and it came out perfect. What is nice about using leather dye is it can be reduced with rubbing alcohol.

[clovishound]

I had pretty good luck using a very strong tea solution to add tannin to woods like maple. I applied several coats and let it soak in and dry.

Be advised, making the ebonizing fluid can take some time. I have forgotten how long it took before I ended up with something that worked reasonably quickly and made a nice dark black, but I'm thinking in the range of a week or more. You can't tell by the color of the fluid as it is dissolving the steel wool, the fluid is mostly clear, after you skim the top. Experiment on a scrap of the most similar wood you can find.

I believe this is the same process used to make India ink.

If you decide to go with a stain or dye, I would recommend a dye. There are professional wood dyes available. Many come as a powder to be mixed with water or alcohol. The dyes will likely give you a deeper black. I have even used India ink on smaller projects with sucess. Of course, using any water based, or alcohol based fluid on wood will raise the grain. A quick sand with a fine grain sandpaper will smooth it back down. Just be sure and put a deep enough coat of dye/ebonizing so that the lighter color of the wood doesn't show through.

[Ojaileveraction]

Lots of good info to think about.
Thanks