Good dark stain and finish for hickory?

[osprey1]

Finished a hickory longbow recently. Tried a walnut colored gel stain to darken it but it did not darken it enough for my liking. I then tried an oil base polyurathane with stain in it. It ran a bit so I sanded the first coat and reapplied. It turned out blotchy so that has too come off now. Anyone got a good way to darken hickory and what finish overtop of the stain works well. Thanks.

[horatio1226]

I would try minwax dark walnut. That will work. Use the thin traditional stain in the yellow can.
As far as the finish, everybody has they're own opinion. I think that a couple 3-4 coats, sanded in between coats, of exterior latex polyurethane is suitable and is easy to apply and maintain. Satin finish looks the best in my opinion.

[osprey1]

Thanks horatio. I'll give that a try.

[SteveD]

I used RIT clothing Dye in Denatured Alcohol. I worked great.

[NoCams]

osprey1,
A friend just finished his with RIT dye. I think the name of the thread was , " NOSAGE". He dyed his hickory to look like Osage. Everything I have heard about hickory is that regular stains just will not penetrate the wood like alcohol based stains.

nocams

[osprey1]

Thanks Steve and nocams. I did a search using "nosage" but couldn't find the right thread. I do polish up the back amd belly to 1000 grit using wet/dry paper before I stained. Thought perhaps that going to this fine a grit was stopping the gel and poly stain from being absorbed properly. Thats very interesting about using the clothes dye and hickory being kinda impervious to some types of stains. I'll have to see if I can find some and test it out. I should know better than to try something untested on a finished project but thats what I did and now I have to again sand and scrape this latest attempt off. Hopefully I don't lose too many lbs of drawing weight. Thanks very much for your help. Sure is a great bunch of folks here with an amazing collective amount of experiance.  

[NoCams]

osprey1NO-SAGE...........Hickory Self-bow.......(lots of pics) (post #0)
here is the thread....

nocams

[NoCams]

osprey1,
I am computer challenged sometimes, could not figure out how to copy and paste that thread properly. It is in PowWow on June 19th posted by Skyler. Try searching no-sage or jsut search skyler as the poster of the thread and it will come up.

nocams

[DW]

Osprey1, just brought it back up to the main POW WOW Page...The colors are endless and they seen to work as well as anything and are very in-expensive.....mixing chart for colors that arn't common is on the web page for Rit......be sure to mix with DENATURED Acohol.....Good Luck.....Don and Skyler

[osprey1]

Thanks guys. I have the rite color dye but denatured alcohol is extremely difficult to find here in Canada. Have to play around with the dye and different alcohols I guess.

[osprey1]

Went with the Rite Dye and Methol Alcohol. Very easy to apply. Went on evenly and the color was a nice dark brown. It also dried very quickly. Finished off with a exterior Varathane oil based spar varnish with a satin finish. First coat is still drying but all looks very good. Thanks again fo everyone who replied. The Rite Dye is great on hickory.

[EASTERNARCHER]

I've been using Fiebring's leather dye....I like it alot! No need for alcohol dilution etc. wipe on-wipe off...too darken....add additional coats.

[Dave2old]

In a pinch with close-grained hardwoods like oak, use analid dye... a powder you mix with water, very cheap and mostly used for arrows. By using mud brown and moss green on two different cotton-ball applicators I've had great luck with cool camo patterns. Or just mud brown for a natural dark stain. Dries in minutes and ready for spray-on spar-poly finish. Because it's water-soluble it might not do will with brush-on finishes. Good luck, dave

[Dave2old]

Maybe it's analine rather than analid. I'm sure someone will know. I just use the stuff and like it, by any name.  :p

[702plmo]

3R had some alcohol based Dark Walnut stain I use on arrows.  It does a wonderful job.   2 coats and it is very dark and goes on fairly even.