I suspect that the finish you're trying to match is well-aged BLO. The
stock appears to be a military piece, possibly an M1, from the photos.
Most 1950s era military weapons had a BLO finish and it would have
gotten really yellow by now (my WWII issue certainly M1 is). I do not
believe the US military used a lacquer finish on any of its wood
stocked weapons - lacquer won't hold up to the kind of abuse a
military weapon must endure. I suspect that's true of most other
countries a swell.

To match, I'd suggest trying some oil based dye added to BLO. General
Finishes sells a small sampler kit that I think is available at
Rockler.Com. Hope you kept some scraps to try for a match.

Regards.

Tom

Top posted for convenience


On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:05:38 -0600, "Strike Penguin"
wrote:

I need some guidance. I'm working on a historical firearm project and I have
some stock pieces that I need finished. The pieces are a buttstock (about
12" long) and a pistol grip, in French Walnut, with a couple of coats of
Tried & True BLO already applied. What I need is for these two pieces to be
given a coat of yellowish nitrocellulose lacquer. I've read here that
lacquer yellows as it ages, but I have a couple of original pieces to serve
as a guide, and it looks to me like the original lacquer was
yellowish-orange in color. Here are pictures of those pieces, dated from the
late 50's:
SNIP