What to do with a stock that has BLING

[GunnyUSMC]

One day I stopped in at one of my local pawn shops to look around. There wasn't much new on the rack so I asked it they had anything coming out. The guy said that he had an old 30-06 Mauser, but had not put it out yet. He then pointed to a boltaction sporter that was behind the counter. From about 20 feet away I could tell that it was not a Mauser, due to the bolt handle. It was a US 1917. It was in a Walnut sporter stock, but something just did not look right.
I asked to look at it and when he handed it to me the first thought I had was what a waste of good Walnut. It had a poor checkering job and It had BLING!
He said that he was not sure what to price it at. Well I handed it back to him and said good luck.
A few days later when I went back to the shop the guy I had talked to said that the boss did not want to sell the rifle with the crack at the back of the tang and wanted to know if I wanted to repair the stock. I said that I would but there was no way that I was going to leave the BLING on the stock.
Well here is the victim. Not only did it have a poor checkering job, but someone had covered the checkering wile gold paint. Have you ever seen cherking that was 4 to 5 lines per inch?




Here is the crack, a very simple repair.


Here is a close up of the checkering.


Well as some of you know, I will try and fix just about anything and try to make it look good too. I had two other sporter stocks to refinish so I just did the 1917 stock at the same time.
Yes. I am striping three stocks at the same time. I don't recamend that any of you try this at home, I am a professional.


Well I had to strip it twice to get all the BLING out of the wood. I do have to say, this is a nice looking piece of Walnut.


I stained the stock with Herter's French Red to give the stock that classic look from the 50's and 60's. The stock still didn't look right with that bad checkering so I had to hide it a little. I did this by using a Q-tip and Brown leather dye to stain just the checkered areas. By doing this it will give the stock some contrast between the checkering and the rest of the stock. Now this will look good.


I hand rubbed in 3 coats of BLO and topped it off with two coats of paste wax.




Here is a close up of the repair. The hole goes into the stock about 4 inches and the dowel was wrapped in fiberglass cloth. Acraglas was used to hold everthing together.

The guys at the shop were happy with the stock when I brought it back. It ended up being a very nice looking rifle.

 

[PONTIACDM]

That stock looks 200% better, well done.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Genuine hand cut checkering always has a few overruns. Probably true if it is cut with a Buck 110 or a checkering file.
You do good work, I think I recognize you from another forum.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Thank you.
I go by Candyman at SRF and a few others, couldn't use it here.

 

[Sam1911]

That's good!

What do you like about Acraglas as an adhesive?

Curious why you like that better than West System epoxies, or even the old standard yellow glue (which seems to be about the strongest choice in wood joints with tight fit-up)?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I have never tried West System epoxies so, I can't say how they hold up.
Acraglas was made for stock work, bedding and repairs. I have used it for over 20 years without trouble.
I don't like glues, not even monkey glue. The trouble is that glue holds on great to what you put it on, but does not hold on to itself. I have repaired many stocks that had first been repaired with glue. Most offten there is glue on both sides of the break.
Also Acraglas is impervious to oils and solvents once it has cured, most glues or not. Just about everyone I know that has guns puts oil and solvent on them from time to time. These oils and solvents tend to get into the stock. When they do they will cause trouble with repairs made with glues.

 

[Sam1911]

Thanks for the answers! I come from furniture and carpentry background so I'm used to a lot of different kinds of glues, but my rifle stock work experience (and the associated special concerns) is more limited.

not even monkey glue.

Undoubtedly "Gorrila Glue" and the other polyurethane glues are the worst possible choice. When Fine Woodworking finally put tham all to the test, there were a lot of surprises. Most notably that polyurethane glues performed abysmally poorly, failing at fractions of the load and stresses that other glues and epoxies could handle.

But the marketeeers don't exactly put that in the ad campaign.

 

[shuvelrider]

That checkering looks like the work of a "Dremel Commando", it does look better now from your work. Kinda like "Folk Art". If it was a 1917 action, did they grind off the ears or other military metal?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

There are a lot of glues that work great in furniture and carpentry work, but they fall short when it comes to stock work.
I have found that Devcon 2 Ton Epoxy (Clear with the 30 min. set time also works great).

The stock was cut and fitted pretty good and the metal work was well done on the rifle. Who ever did the work did grind off the ears or other military metal.

 

[Jim Watson]

Good salvage job. Nothing to be done about the scoring (I refuse to call it checkering.)

There is one like that around town here, a Winchester Model 43 .218 Bee. Excellent condition except for the 5 LPI job. No bling, though.

 

[shuvelrider]

That would be a far cry from excellent for a mod 43, that would be a shame.