Need stock repair advice.

[vrh]

Just got my Lyman Great Plains rifle today. I knew that there would be a scratch on the stock opposite of the lock.
It is not a large or deep scratch. Can barely feel the edges with my fingernail. But it is visible. It is directly to the right of the lock screw. The stock is a dark walnut finish. Wondering how can I go about repairing this scratch?
The rifle is a factory built rifle and not a kit.

[country gent]

Some times a little tru oil worked in with a finger hides them very nicely. That's in probably the beast place for a scratch. If you want to sand it out then you can block sand it easily by removing the screw. Remove the scratch with s40 grit then some 320 and 400. Stain and oil finish the surface. Boss gets just a little shorter but it doesn't show like feathering on a buttstock or fore arm does.
THe tricky part will be finding the right stain to match

[rfd]

unless the entire stock is stripped, restained and recleared, yer gonna hafta experiment a bit with hiding that really deep into-the-grain scratch.

the fast way to make the scratch far less noticeable is to find a stain hue as close to the original, or somewhat lighter, and just restain. chances are that since the scratch goes into the wood and beyond the finish and stain, it'll come up darker than you'd like, and darker still when sealed with clear. if you pull the barrel and use some lacquer thinner or acetone to pull off some of the finish and stain that's in the barrel channel onto a bit of cotton cloth, that might do the trick for rubbing what ya picked up into the scratch. it might look light, but should darken a bit when clear coated. you can also take that stained cloth and dip it in something like tru-oil or minwax and make what's called a "shader coat" mix of stain and clear to both color and seal at the same time.

while it'll never totally blend in unless the finish is removed, restained, and then clear coated, but because the scratch is on the off plate cheek one option is to sand back just the plate cheek, restain that and then clear coat over it.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Were the stock mine, I'd remove the screw and sand the entire flat area until the scratch disappears. You can't just sand the scratch only, because it will be lower than the rest of the surface, so it's necessary to do the entire flat. Use a sanding block and 320 grit paper, followed by 400 grit. That's all fairly simple, but the tough part will be matching the stain and finish to the rest of the stock. Lots of stockmakers test the stain and finish combinations on the inside of the stock's barrel channel in small areas. If you can come close, even it it's not an exact match, refinishing the entire flat will be less noticeable than a smaller area. I don't have one of these rifles, but have a couple similar, and looking at your photo it appears that the wood may be birch rather than walnut, so I'd stay away from dark stains. Also, the stock appears to be satin, rather than glossy. Tru Oil is glossy, but can be rubbed back to a satin finish, and it's a good pore sealer. But, if you can get a good match on the color you might want to consider just using a carnauba wax over the stain. You can really narrow your search for the right shade of stain by obtaining color charts from the various makers, rather than buying several small cans looking for the best one. Again, don't take it for granted that once the stain is on the wood it will be exactly the same in appearance as the color chart. Still best to try a small amount in the barrel channel or under the butt plate.

[oldracer]

If it were me, I'd leave it as in the coming years there will probably be more added and you can always say "hey there you were first". Sort of like a new car or truck, worry, worry about that first ding or scratch then it is yours.
John

[bob208]

rub that spot with linseed oil and use the heck out of that rifle. mine has almost no finish left on the wrist. plus a few bumps.

[waksupi]

I would also just leave it alone. Just one of many that will appear over the years.

[redhawk0]

Try rubbing it with a little Old English Polish. It will disappear for the most part...but....think of it this way...its a character mark. My rifles have lots of character marks...and a story behind almost every one of them.

redhawk

[arcticap]

I wouldn't sand and refinish that flat section of the stock.
That could end up enlarging the damaged area.
if you can't match the color of a small scratch then how will you match up the enlarged sanded area?

Whatever happened to the notion of steaming out a small scratch or gouge?
I probably wouldn't do that either, but at least it would be starting small and limiting the color match to a very small area.

Me? I'd just put some Old English scratch cover stain on it and not worry about it.
No one will look at your gun with a magnifying glass.
But they might notice a large mismatched area of color.

I once walked into a single strand of barbed wire in the woods and gouged a BP gun stock of mine.
I considered trying to raise the dent with steam and can still try if I really want to but it's deep.
But by putting off the decision until the future, it helps preserve my options.

And besides, it was better that the gun stock took the damage from the barbed wire than me.
Live and learn and appreciate the little things in life that could have been worse, like scratches and dings.
Try not to make it worse than it already is.

Haven't you ever cut yourself with a sharp knife like when you were a kid?
Did you go to the hospital to get stitches or just let it heal and have a little scar, and not tell your parents?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

It's all in what vrh wants the end result to be, and how much time and effort he wants to put into it. If he wants to completely remove the scratch he'll have to sand the surrounding wood down to the level of the bottom of the scratch. In my experience steaming doesn't work on a deep scratch or gouge, because the wood has been removed. It does work fairly well on dents and compressions where the steam raises the wood back up, but discoloration is also often a side effect. This scratch can probably be largely disguised by lightly spot sanding and applying some appropriately colored stain, but matching the finish on just a spot will be much more difficult to accomplish than doing it on a larger area. Some folks do think that refinishing a stock is removing part of history, but other folks desire their guns to look as nice as possible. Nice thing is, everyone is able to do as they see fit. Here's a really rough Turk Mauser, before and after. Your choice?

Attachment 232530 Attachment 232531
Click to enlarge

[Gtek]

I have seen Minwax furniture sticks for a quick and dirty. I would #0000 REAL LIGHTLY and find a alcohol based stain (craft store) and try. As is most of the commercial pieces appear to me to be made from some form of pallet wood, normal solvent stains probably not a good choice. How are you at engraving/carving?

[pietro]

In my experience steaming doesn't work on a deep scratch or gouge, because the wood has been removed.

IME, steaming will work only if the scratch/gouge/dent has NOT broken the wood grain.



Another alternative would be to work on the scratch only.

I would remove the buttplate and use a small burr to make a bit of sawdust from the stock's Walnut (All GPR's were issued with walnut stocks) there.

Portion out the resulting sawdust & try a few different stains until a close match for the remainder of the gun's stock is found.

Apply a coat of paste wax to the entire area around the scratch, taking care that no wax gets into the scratch itself.

Mix a few drops of wood glue into the stained sawdust & fill the scratch.

After it sits a minute or two, drag the edge of a razor blade the length of the scratch to level the filler & remove any residue from the stock outside the scratch.

After the adhesive cures, I apply some paste wax to the area, if not the entire stock & rub it out.


.

[rondog]

I'm also in the "leave it alone" camp.

[TNsailorman]

Pietro, I have repaired a couple of deep scratches for friends using the same basic method you used. I used glass bed to mix the dust and it works great. I haven't done one of those repairs in over 30 years now, most guys are using plastic/synthetic stocks now and don't really care about scratches or bruises. james

[fifty four]

Try this simple two-step process and you'll be doing yourself an enormous favor. First, use a stain touch-up pen, stick, etc. to darken the scratch. Second, ignore it for the rest of your life.

[Buzzard II]

It's not the first scratch and it sure will not be the last. I would just shoot it and enjoy it Let the next owner worry about it.

[St. Hogustine]

Another vote for a quick dab of tru-oil and some strategic amnesia.

[bob208]

at one time there was articles in muzzle blasts on how to age your gun. which was tapping the stock with a ring of keys or dropping it in the driveway.

[country gent]

That scratch was the result of hitting the bone nose piercing when you were forced to swung it like a club. LOL. As a winter project I would sand the scratch out and light sand the entire stock down and refinish form there. This way you can stain to the shade you prefer and the finish you like. As a plus some of those stocks had some nice grain come out when re finished also

[OverMax]

Not a bad scratch but one located in a noticeable place.
Could call and discuss current situation with professionals. (Track of the Wolf.) otherwise?

I myself would let it be. >Than~ think up a Jim Dandy far-out hunting story how the scratch came to be. <