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What to do about those holes in the stock.
In many stocks you get, there will be small holes, knots, and voids. I have even seen this in high dollar blanks, the overall figure of the wood supporting the price.
One of the worst I ever had to fix was for a customer in Minnesota. I'm sure I filled at least 50 small voids in the stock. It came out well enough, it was one of our exhibition pieces at SHOT and SCI that year.
On the stock I am working on, there are a few small patch jobs that was done by the wood vendor, that were going to stick out like a sore thumb on the finished firearm.
I used an Exacto, Foredom, and dental picks to remove all of the filler material, and cleaned out any loose pieces of wood. On small knots in the stock, if the centers were not tight, I removed any loose material, and repaired the spot.
Once I have the loose and unwanted material removed, I get a scrap of similar wood, and start trimming until I have a plug that will fit into the hole. I want it to go in as deeply as possible, with as good of fit as possible.
I apply some Titebond glue, and re-insert the plug. I then GENTLY tap the plug in as far as it wants to go.
At this point, I will wipe off excess glue, and trim the plug as closely as possible. A cut off wheel in a Dremel(!) works well for this.
I then lightly file the plug to take it nearly to surface, then course sand, using a sanding block to finish it off. This will fill any small gaps you may have had in your filling.
You will be surprised how well the repairs work, and disappear in a finished piece.
I'll cover what to do with hair line voids in the finish process.