I plan on crafting a dozen wood arrows this fall or winter as time allows.  I plan on making my own walnut stain, likely water based, from black walnuts.  I plan on using Birchwood Casey's Tru-oil for a finish.

Any arrow crafters or bowyers have expereince making their own black walnut stain?  If so, do you have any sugestions or tips to help the stain job turn out well?

Hmm. Never thought about it for a wood stain but I used to use walnut hulls boiled in water for trap dye. Might work.

It works,  you can even just wipe wood with a green Walnut that you have opened up like and orange.  The stain will start out yellow then turn a nice brown.

I have made a bunch of walnut stain from husks. My first was crushed walnut hulls mixed with water then straining the mixture through an old Teeshirt. The straining part didn't go well so the mix ended up a slurry of liquid and finely crushed hulls. This mix worked really well as an arrow shaft stain. The down side is mold formed on the top of the liquid in about 6 months.

For my next batch I mixed enough water with crushed hulls to make a slurry, then added  denatured alcohol to the mix. I probably had a cup of water in my slurry and two cups of alcohol.

I have had this batch for years in a plastic quart container with no mold growing in it at all.

I have tried what Eric said with success. Seems like I recall using ammonia as a solvent as well. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

Now I'm looking at some Osage roots for dyeing. I've got a couple of trees where the soil has eroded to expose those bright orange roots.

Thanks for the input!

I take whole walnuts with the hull on and hang them in a heavy duty trash bag in a building and let them rot. After a few weeks set a coffee can under the bag and punch a hole in bag. It makes wonderful stain.