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Thread: From Firewood to a Gunstock

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy Gunfreak25's Avatar
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    From Firewood to a Gunstock

    One fine day I got an email from a forum member requesting some stock work services of mine. He said he had a stock for his Dutch Beaumont rifle that needed some repair work. The pictures he sent me showed the rifle assembled, and a side view of the "crack" on the left side of the stock. The crack looked to be very old, and was badly repaired with elmers wood glue probably 20 maybe 30 years ago. So a week or two later and I had his stock at my house. Only when I opened the box, I found I had not one, but two stocks! The vibrations and shock just from shipping the thing to me must have cracked it in two, because he said it wasn't broken in two before he sent it. That alone shows how bad of a job glue does to hold a stock together. So the repairing began...Here's 2 pictures of the stock with that nasty glue everywhere inside of it. Actually I think I already had some of the glue removed at this stage..





    Here is the stock after I worked for a few days removing as much glue as I could with KleanStrip Stripper. For removing glue, tough polyurethanes, and other old epoxies I use the Stripper in the gold can, it's alot stronger than the Stripper in the red can.



    To clamp this stock together you need to make yourself a couple of wooden blocks for support and protection from the clamps. The round piece is from an old toilet plunger and fits the barrel channel like a glove, I cut a flat spot ontop so the clamp has something to sit level on. The bottom piece is just a scrap piece of pine I had laying around, using a hacksaw, make several deep cuts going parallel with the piece, then use a screwdriver or wood chisel and scrap out the wood, like so. This is for the bottom of the stock, and the cutout helps it to "cup" the stock and prevent it from slipping.



    When I do stock work, I use Devcon 2 ton clear epoxy weld with the 30 minute work time. This stuff is about as close to acraglas you can get without using acraglas. However, I would recommend acraglas over the Devcon. When bought in volume acraglas will also be a good bit cheaper, since the Devcon now runs me $5 a tube. I have never had a repair break or fail when using Devcon, it's good stuff especially when your on the go and don't have the room or time to mix up the acraglas.



    Before applying your resin, test clamp your broken pieces together, to see how long it takes to you clamp the area, and how well it will clamp down. I had to remove a tiny sliver of wood between the two halves to get them to fit together. It was a very old break, did not match up, and the two halves swelled a little bit when I was removing the glue from them days earlier. After test clamping, I cleaned both area's very well with denatured alcohol, applied a good layer of resin on the two halves, and clamped them down for the night. Use waxpaper to keep the top dowel from sticking to the barrel channel.



    The next morning I unclamped everything, and inspected my repairs.
    Here's the stock before cleaning up my repair work.



    Those dents inside the barrel channel, they were there before my work. My guess is the bozo who repaired the stock years ago with glue, just clamped the two pieces together without using any wood blocks for protection, so they are most likely clamp marks.





    Now, I still had to strip the stock and give it a complete refinish, so I wasn't worried about cleaning up my repair work just yet. During stripping, I purposely applied stripper to the seam of my repair, this removed any resin that had seeped out during clamping. With this resin now out of the edges of the seam, I could go back later with my "dyed" epoxy mix and refill the seam to properly hide the repair into the stocks finish. My "dyed" resin is just a mix of a little lamp black soot (don't use candle soot as it has an oily residue) mixed in with the resin to turn it black, so it's not clear when it dries.

    Stupid me forgot to take any pictures of the stripping and finishing process. After stripping the entire stock, I steamed the dents, made 2 last repairs, filled in the seam of the repair with my dyed resin, cleaned all my repair work up, gave the stock a light sanding to even it out as well as smooth the grain out, stained the stock with Chestnut Ridge Military Stock stain (alcohol based), let it dry 24 hours, buffed very well with 0000 superfine steel wool, and gave it 3 hand rubbed coats of pure tung oil, 24 hours between coats, and 3 days dry time on the last coat before hand rubbing in a good coat of Johnsons paste wax, let that dry 1 day, and buff it off very well.

    Continuation down the page.......
    Last edited by Gunfreak25; 04-02-2010 at 05:00 PM. Reason: Pics
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy Gunfreak25's Avatar
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    Here she is all done!





    Left side of the stock repair seam



    Right side



    This is one of the nicest walnut stocks i've ever worked on.



    This is one repair I also made. The edge of the wood in the cleaning rod channel was badly crushed in, and the only way to repair it was to do a cut and splice.



    So that's how you turn would be firewood back into a nice gunstock. Please keep your eyes open in this section for other upcoming post on my stockwork. Like always if you have any questions regarding stock work just ask! I also perform stock work for forum members, if you have something that needs work but don't feel up to do the work yourself just drop me a PM.
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson

  3. #3
    Boolit Master



    Charlie Sometimes's Avatar
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    Great work!
    It makes a body feel good inside to save a nice stock from the wood stove!
    I save old stocks that are "beyond repair" for matching wood, or testing finishes.
    Also a great way to display your skills in restoration in a gun shop, I'm told.
    USMC 1980-1985

  4. #4
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    Wow that's really a great repair job GF.

    It's amazing how natural looking you were able to get that crack repair blended with the rest of the stock. It almost looks like natural grain openings.

    My Trapdoor has wood figure and color very close to that stock. Very cool.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master



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    Smile

    Gunfreak25, great job on the stock. I have replied a time or two about just what you have so well described in print and pictures. It is amazing at what can be done with a busted stock when you really put the mind to work. If the owner takes care with the pieces to not loose pieces or break out cunks, the stock is repairable. I hope that your taking time to show what can be done with patience will save a few of the old stocks that have suffered a fate such as this one. Keep up the good work, James

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
    Lee's Avatar
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    Devcon epoxy is NOT good.
    .
    .
    .
    Devcon epoxy is GREAT. That company is proof that quality materials, with quality controls, yields a quality product! 'Nuff said............Lee
    Been paddlin' upstream all my life, don't see no reason to turn around now.

  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy
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    Man, you do good work!

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy Gunfreak25's Avatar
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    Thank you for the kind words gentlemen, as far as missing chunks go...hell even if the stock is missing large amounts of wood I can fix that too. Easy as pie really. Stay tuned for my next post!
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson

  9. #9
    Boolit Mold
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    Beautiful work.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master LAH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gunfreak25 View Post
    Thank you for the kind words gentlemen, as far as missing chunks go...hell even if the stock is missing large amounts of wood I can fix that too. Easy as pie really. Stay tuned for my next post!

    And we wait with interest...................Creeker

  11. #11
    Boolit Master



    atr's Avatar
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    Nice job.....

    it looks alot better then the front of me after the doctors got through with slicing me open and then stapling me back together again.

  12. #12
    Boolit Buddy Phat Man Mike's Avatar
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    man that sure is some super nice work!! I'm going to show my brother! he's got some old mil-sup's needing repair's and can watch the thread!

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy Gunfreak25's Avatar
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    Thank you, if your brother would like any pointers just have him drop me an email.

    thomasbussell25@yahoo.com
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson

  14. #14
    Boolit Master Jack Stanley's Avatar
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    I didn't know what to expect with a title including firewood ...... I just sorta assumed that you'd found a nice log and .............. well that's what I did with the cherry log I had turned into a Garand stock .

    Very nice repair job , I can only imagine the work involved .

    Jack

  15. #15
    Boolit Bub Estacado's Avatar
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    Very, very nice work. You're right, a great looking piece of walnut.

  16. #16
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    PatMarlin's Avatar
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    Amazing work. Outstanding.

  17. #17
    Boolit Mold
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    great . Thanks.....

  18. #18
    Boolit Master

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    pretty nice work !

  19. #19
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    Nice work Gunfreak!!! This is the kind of stuff I like to see on this forum.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    I know this is a 10 y/o post, lol, but I did a similar job on an old Mossberg .22 for a neighbor. I enlisted my brother in law, a master woodworker, for suggestions, and he recommended the same process the OP used. I was very happy with the outcome, bringing a broken-down old classic back to life (even if my neighbor just puts it back in the closet again!!).
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IMG_5494.jpg   IMG_5502.jpg   IMG_5511.jpg  
    Last edited by Boolseye; 12-11-2018 at 07:21 AM.

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