So, I treated the stock with aqua fortis (nitric acid) and sealed it with Birchwood Casey Tru Oil today. The aqua fortis turns the wood a really nasty green, then you burn it with a heat gun to turn it brown. It turns a uniform brown, with no stripes. The stripes are brought out by rubbing it down with a Scotch Brite pad soaked in Tru Oil. All it needs from here is more coats of Tru Oil until I'm happy with the finish.
Meanwhile, all of the parts that will be brown are quietly rusting away in the workshop. This should take about a week, as I apply more of the cold rusting agent every day. Once they are as dark as I would like them to be, I'll card off the scale, oil them, and assemble the rifle.
I had it fully assembled yesterday to check function. I snapped a few caps on it in the back yard, and it sets them off reliably, with the hammer well centered and flat on the nipple. The set triggers work wonderfully after filing at least 1/8" off of both trigger bars, which were far too high to even let the hammer cock. To be fair, the triggers are meant to fit pretty much any rifle, so they leave the trigger bars tall so we can fit them to our rifle. Anyway, everything works as it should. It won't be long now...
