There are a couple ways to add "figure" to bland wood. A suprising number of stocks have been doctored over the years, and unless someone is very good at reading the grain of a piece of wood they can be fooled.
My favorite way to do the job starts with a clean, dry stock. All filling should be done prior to starting the work. If you are going to stain the entire stock you should do this first.
Using a black Sharpie permanent marker (thin ones work best) draw in the highlights of the grain using short straight lines in the direction of the grain. You should try to keep to a fairly natural pattern (ie. quartersawn, marbled, etc). If you need help look for a stock to duplicate in a book.
Once the heavy lines are down you can then take a small paintbrush and use a dark stain to highlight the areas around the "grain". Oil stains work better, but water stains mix best.
Once this dries you can finish the stock. You must be very careful not to cut into the wood while doing any finish work, or it will show up like a beacon on a dark night.
This is not a difficult project, but the more you work with wood the easier it becomes. I suggest the first timer try the technique on a plain board prior to working his stock.
A lot of Spanish guns, and upgraded American guns have had variations of this technique worked on them. It always schocked the owners when they stripped the stocks to refisnish them and lost all the figure they had.
