I went to no extra effort making this past years batch of walnut stain. I generally gather walnuts each fall and peel the green husk and after making a big tea bag with them in an old shirt I boil them making a stain.
Last year having plenty of stain on hand I gathered walnuts but decided to try something different. I decided to let them sit gathering rain water and freeze and thaw all winter to see what happens. Hey the Kentucky temperature swings work in aging bourbon by working in and out of the charred barrels so why wouldn't it work the color out of the walnuts?
We didn't get a lot of rain or snow this winter so the buckets didn't start to run over until early spring after they had all winter of changing temps to "brew"
At that point I dumped them off into clean buckets through pieces of screen and I've been very happy with the results. This is a strong batch of stain and only requires a short soak.
Here is a Quigley belt that was soaked in the stain for about an hour. Allowed to dry hanging in the sun. The next day it was reconditioned with pure neatsfoot oil followed by skidmores cream a couple days later and then topcoated with bagkote.
What I really like about this batch is the way it leaves the project highlighted and the natural "aged" look I'm getting. Upon drying you can see it stained the edges darker and left protected areas lighter. As normal with the natural walnut stain it doesn't look like much after staining but once conditioned the neatsfoot and skidmores really makes the colors pop.