Help Me Mend an Arisaka Stock For My Nephew

[Suo Gan]

I bought a type 99 Arisaka several months ago. The barrel and action are in fair shape and I would like to give it to my nephew so that he can hunt with it. It shoots very good with the open sights at 50. But, the stock is in bad shape, and getting worse. A former owner tried to make a silk purse from it, cut down the forend, and it has a major split in the butt stock. So here is my question. Without spending any money on finding a replacement stock, is there any alternative for SOUNDLY repairing this stock so that he can shoot it safely. I am thinking fiberglass and building up the forend, mending the crack, and fixing the butt stock so that I can attach a butt pad...with some cushion.

Are there any good ways to do this for small money, or should I send the rifle down the road? Thanks

[sundog]

Are you sure that the 'crack' that you are looking at is not actually the 2-piece stock that was original on the Type 99? The bottom piece is held in position with screws in the trigger guard and butt plate. If other wise usable, you might be able to put some biscuits joints in the seam and glue it back together.

[EMC45]

Are you sure that the 'crack' that you are looking at is not actually the 2-piece stock that was original on the Type 99? The bottom piece is held in position with screws in the trigger guard and butt plate. If other wise usable, you might be able to put some biscuits joints in the seam and glue it back together.



Great point Sundog! The stocks were dovetailed together IIRC.

[Suo Gan]

That very well could be. Anyway it is coming apart. I was thinking of doweling it. What about splicing another piece to the forearm to make it longer...can you recommend a good oil/chemical resistant material?

[Suo Gan]

Has anyone spliced a stock with success?

[koehn,jim]

In woodworking a product called gorilla glue is hard to beat, the idea of a dowell has merit. 30 years ago I put a rose wood cap on the fore end of a rifle and its still fine. Hope it works out for you

[TNsailorman]

I have never used Gorilla Glue but I have used accraglas to mend several stocks and with complete sucess. It is the stuff used to glass bed actions and as anyone who has used it can tell you, once it dries you may break some other point in the wood but that accraglas joint will still be holding when the rest of the wood has turned to sawdust. Just make sure you get as much of the oil out of the wood around the repair as possible. Acetone works well for this. My experience anyway. James

[Suo Gan]

I am going to try the acraglass. Thanks for the recommendations.

[Char-Gar]

In a recent email exchange with the tech guys at Bownells about using Acraglas gel to mend stocks, they told me the original Acaglas is a far better adhesive than the gel and much better for joining wood to wood.

[Milsurp Junkie]

Any of the 1 hour epoxies are great as well. For cleanup, a cotton rag w/ distilled vinegar works great on the unset stuff (also great if you manage to get it on your clothes).

[Suo Gan]

In a recent email exchange with the tech guys at Bownells about using Acraglas gel to mend stocks, they told me the original Acaglas is a far better adhesive than the gel and much better for joining wood to wood.

Thanks for letting me know that, preciate it!

[MtGun44]

Tightbond 2 wood glue is extremely strong, needs a pretty clean surface. It is
stronger than the wood when dry, available at any home store. The gorilla glue
I tried foamed up and pushed the parts apart, made a messy piece of junk. It
also went solid in the bottle in about 6 months. Never again for me.

[corvette8n]

I fixed a broken .22 stock with brass pins and Gorilla glue.

[Gunfreak25]

When doing stock work, you must be sure to never use GLUES. Monkey glue is good stuff, but is not suitable for working with gunstocks. Unlike house furniture a gunstock is subject to violent vibrations and sometimes solvents during cleaning. Older surplus stocks also tend to have more oil in them from their service life.

When working with EPOXIES, go with the one that is rated for use with wood and one that has the longest dry time and work time. This extra time allows the resin to soak into the wood for a stronger repair before it begins thickening.

I use Devcon 2 ton clear epoxy weld with the 30 minute work time and "2 hour" dry time. However I always wait 12 to 24 hours for full cure before I continue my work with the repaired area. My #1 recommendation would Acraglas as also said above.

If the spliced on toe of your Arisaka is beginning to come off it can be easily repaired. Toe splices are found on many surplus rifle stocks. It was actually pretty ingenious, it allowed the arsenals to use smaller stock blanks instead of the much larger blanks. A smaller blank meant easier mass production because they didn't have to rely on finding tree's big enough in diameter to make solid once piece stocks out of. They simply went back later on and used a small piece of leftover wood to make the toe out of. Almost all toes were dovetailed on, sometimes glues were used and sometimes they weren't. It's common for the edges of the wood to shrink, giving it the appearance of a crack.

This is a Finnish M39 stock I have already repaired. But I am using it as an example of how one can go about repairing cracked toes. The toe on this stock was indeed cracking, if not repaired the crack will continue to grow as the rifle is fired. The edges of the wood where it was cracking was a little shrunken as well, so after fixing it I filled in the gap with some dyed resin to hide it. The patch of wood you see higher up was where two very deep gouges were. I simple cutout the area and glassed in a fitted piece of birchwood. Was so simple I didn't bother to charge my customer extra for it. :lol:


http://i42.tinypic.com/k9ygxg.jpg

The first thing you do is try to get as much resin as you can into the crack. This picture is an example of how you would get that resin into the crack. I used a 3/16" bit to drill down into the crack from the rear of the buttstock. You'll want to drill as close to the surface of the stocks crack as possible but be careful not to breach the surface with your bit. So get your angle right before drilling.

http://i40.tinypic.com/1476o8.jpg

After drilling your hole, clean it out with denatured alcohol to remove any oil in there. Then mix up your resin and fill the hole about halfway. I use a toothpick "drip" the resin down into the hole. Takes but just a minute or so. After filled, take a 3/16" dowel cut a little longer than the hole and begin inserting it into the hole. There will be significant pressure, so you may have to tap it in with a mallet. This pressure is good though, since the resin is trapped and has nowhere to go it will be pressure injected into the crack. Expect a good bit to seep out the end of the hole though. Let this cure for 12 hours or so then cut the end of the dowel off and file it flush with the butt.

Now you want to reinforce the repair. But this time drill two holes at an angle. This time use a 1/4" bit to drill the holes. Make the holes an inch or so apart. As before, drill from the rear of the butt.

http://i43.tinypic.com/117g0wm.jpg

The thing you must do differently with reinforcement dowels is you will employ the use of fiberglass. Fiberglass cloth is available at Walmart in the automotive section for around $4. You will get enough to last many years. The holes you drilled will be 1/4" and the dowels you will use are 3/16". They will be a little loose but this is good, before inserting the dowels into the holes wrap a little fiberglass cloth around them. It doesn't have to be perfect. When it's cured, file the dowels flush with the butt.

When done your repairs should look like this. The dowel thats higher up was the one I used to drill straight into the crack. The two dowels below that are opposite of one another were the ones drilled at an angle for reinforcement.

http://i39.tinypic.com/ngy6v6.jpg

This is the right side of the stock where the wood was beginning to shrink at the edges as well, but there was no crack so I just filled the gap with my dyed resin, filed the extra away once it was dry then applied a little chocolate colored alcohol based stain to hide things.

http://i40.tinypic.com/vyb5w6.jpg

I do stock work for forum members all the time. If anyone has a stock that needs attention or just wants a little DIY advice just drop me a PM here. :D -Tom

[3006guns]

I have quite a few Arisakas and I haven't seen mention of one fact: The splice you see is actually a sliding DOVETAIL, not glued. If you remove the action screws and buttplate, you can grasp the lower portion of the buttstock and slide it off to the rear. The crack is more visible now than in the 1940's because the wood has dried and shrunk a bit.

I mentioned this because I can't see how you could dowel it easily. You might be able to reduce the height of the male portion of the dovetail so that the "crack" comes closer together, then slather on epoxy, assemble and keep the pieces tight with surgical cord or inner tube rubber stretched around it. Careful finishing will make the crack almost invisible if done patiently.

One further caution. The Japanese finished the stock with the resin from the Urishi plant, which is a kissin' cousin to poison sumac. Any sanding dust can cause bad skin reactions and even worse if inhaled. HEED!

By the way, the type 99 is one heck of a rifle....simple, rugged and easily repaired in the field. Good choice!