Curly maple w/ vinegar stain

[Aaron at Wingerts Woodworks]

I scored a nice block of very curly hard maple recently.  Figured it was a good time to try to stain it with a method I've heard about but never tried.  I put steel wool in a piece of my wife's tupperware and filled it with white vinegar.  A week later it looks like the inside of a porta-John if you get my drift.  Turned the call and sanded to 320.  Wiped it on the call, briefly hit it with the torch to "activate" it as I've read about, and viola!  It really makes the figure pop!  The stain raised the grain so I sanded with 320 again and then on up past 800 and then finished it. 

The toneboard is Delrin on this one. 

I put an unfinished block of the same piece of maple in the pic for comparison. 

[FNA Custom Calls By David Mitchell.]

Thats beautiful Aaron!!

David

[Aaron at Wingerts Woodworks]

Thanks David.  

Just for fun, here's the stain.................

That IS steel wool, despite what it looks like. 

[FNA Custom Calls By David Mitchell.]

LOL! I guess I'll take your word on that. 

David

[VECtor Calls]

Very nice call!  Thanks for showing what the 'process' looks like too.  If mine turned out like that, I would be on here asking a hundred questions before I used it.  Now I know what to expect.   

Parker

[BLKDOGS]

Thats is cool lookin call    as long as it dont smell the same  all is good

[Aaron at Wingerts Woodworks]

Thanks fellas! 

[Robert A.]

That is awesome work Amigo!!!!

[harvey8542]

Wow I would never have guessed you would have gotten such a nice look from that sess pool.

[Mark at Bad Medicine Game Calls]

That is beautiful!!

[jcz]

Nice call. Thanks for showing us how to make this concoction.

[gooseforsupper]

Tell me more about the trick with the torch.  I tried the stain once and it didn't "pop" like I would have hoped.  Did I miss activating it in some way?

Thanks!

[Aaron at Wingerts Woodworks]

The steel wool has to sit in the vinegar (white vinegar) for at least three or four days.  Wipe the concoction on the call with a brush or paper towel, turn the lathe on, and just run the torch over it enough to heat the surface up.  Not hot enough to actually burn or char it.  It looked ok before the heat, but the heat added more depth to it.   

[BigB]

That's one of the best dyed flame maple calls that I've seen!  I've tried the vineger/steel wool concoction on hedge before to get a faux green hedge look.  But I think the dyed flame maple looks much better than the faux green hedge!  Nice work!!


Brian