Following along behind Bubba

Attachment 160637Bubba customized this old Krag rifle. I think he wanted the "Weatherby look" with the reverse angled stock. I bought it from an online auction for a reasonable price. It came out of a pawn shop in Grants Pass, OR. My first thought was to replace the original stock with a Boyds carbine stock that I had on hand, but once I received the rifle the original stock proved to be very sound and had great tiger stripe wood grain. That got me to thinking how I might utilize the existing stock. It already looked kind of disproportionate, so just rounding off the front end didn't seem like a solution.
Attachment 160638

To save the stock it made more sense to add something on the front end rather than take more off, but the odd angle made it a challenge. I couldn't readily restore it to full military as-issued, because the barrel had been shortened and I just wasn't into a barrel job. I found a suitable chunk of scrap walnut that would make a nice contrast, matched the angle of the cut off, and using an internal dowel and lots of AccraGlas Gel I glued it on.
Attachment 160639Does that look peculiar, or what? Now the exercise was to remove all the surplus wood--everything that didn't look like a forend.
Attachment 160640Attachment 160641Attachment 160642Attachment 160643Thought it would look kind of odd if I didn't extend the finger groove on into the new piece.

Attachment 160645Bottom view. Then I refinished the whole stock using 3 coats of Tru Oil rubbed back to a satin and a couple of light coats of TreWax. Some Oxpho Blue on the barrel helped.
Attachment 160646Attachment 160647

Looked o.k. to me--but one problem remained, that of the front sling swivel. With the new piece added it was too far back, so I filled the old hole and had a mental debate about how to install a replacement. I did a good job on the new stock piece and felt that if I mounted a detachable swivel just a bit forward of the joint it could probably stand up to a lot of jerking and pulling from being carried with a sling, but have never liked the fact that on most Krag sporters there isn't any connection between the barrel and stock forward of the front action/trigger guard screw. I decided to make a part that would solve both problems.

Attachment 160649Attachment 160650Attachment 160651

BUT---I can't find the photos for the swivel right now---I uploaded them to Costco and will have to get them back again. So--to be continued.....

I wouldn't have added quite that much length but, I still think it looks better than what it did; even though it didn't look that bad to begin with.

Bubba and I are well acquainted so anything that comes out the way the end user wanted it is OK in my book.

HollowPoint

I agree that it would be a shame to throw away that tiger striped walnut, but finger grooves always look odd on a sporter, and you don't need tiger-striped checkering. It would be possible to inlet a panel of walnut and finish it flush, remove, checker and re-insert it. At last I would be sure of getting the edge of a borderless checkered panel completely straight. An angled front end to the panel could partly disguise the joint for a new front end.

When I got my Krag the front of the stock had been broken and patched back with wood putty. I cut it off under the front barrel band and Accra glassed a piece of Hedge just like you did. For my dowel I used a piece of 3/8" all thread.
The barrel band covers the cut although they mated up well enough if I didn't have a barrel band.
I had walnut but I went with hedge because I didn't think I could match the walnut perfectly so I gave it some contrast instead

.Attachment 160672

That's good work, guys, and I love seeing old, butchered guns being resurrected and given a real face lift, so they can be used with your head held high.

So Wolfer,

How in the world did you keep the hedge from cracking? Every piece I have ever cut has cracked badly, it doesn't matter if it was cut in the Winter or Summer, green or partially dried, or even from a ~100 year old fence post. They have all cracked.

I am doing a stock for a Browning T-bolt that could use a fore end tip. I would like to use hedge because it has some decent contrast to the stock, but there is that pesky cracking problem.

Robert

Nice work DG. Done similar repairs to rifles. A matter of taste, not a big fan of sharp ends at the fore end. The Finns put together stocks out of two pieces for their service rifles.
Be well

Good looking repair. I bought some Ebony blocks years ago to have on hand for small woodturning projects and possible to build a contrasting end cap for a rifle stock. Still got them around here somewhere.

You did a nice job ! I like Acra glas gel as well for most repairs. I might have just cut that angle off straight and added a doweled piece with a joint 90 degrees to the barrel but maybe not as your fix looks nice.

Jedman

Excellent work and a job well done.

Any one who would butcher a fine old Krag like was done to this rifle before you resurrected it should have his "man-card" revoked. And then just for good measure, a slap up to the side of the head!

Well I think you did a great job ...im not a wood guy or collector so just saying good job .

Thanks for the nice words, gentlemen. I'll be getting back to this thread when I recover the photos of making and installing a barrel band/sling swivel from scratch. Should be no more than a week. I had uploaded the photos to Costco Photo Center to free up memory on my computer, and have ordered them on a DVD which I can then download to the computer and upload to the website. Everything considered, it did come out nice, saved a butchered rifle, and I was able to use the carbine stock on another project.* The one criticism that I seem to have had in one of the posts is that I added too much wood, but I'll take a final photo showing this rifle compared to a commercial sporter and the stock proportions.

* Like I need another project!

Attachment 160750

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mk42gunner

So Wolfer,

How in the world did you keep the hedge from cracking? Every piece I have ever cut has cracked badly, it doesn't matter if it was cut in the Winter or Summer, green or partially dried, or even from a ~100 year old fence post. They have all cracked.

I am doing a stock for a Browning T-bolt that could use a fore end tip. I would like to use hedge because it has some decent contrast to the stock, but there is that pesky cracking problem.

Robert

---

I use the section of the tree that I think is referred to as quarter sawn. Meaning if the tree was split into quarters and then the heart and sap removed what's left shouldn't warp or crack after it's been cured. After chopping out the green blank the ends are coated with paint, pine tar, varnish or something to stop end crack. That particular piece was split out of a stick of firewood that was several years old. I've used hedge mostly on pistol grips and never had a problem with it cracking. My biggest complaint is I don't know how to stabilize the color. Starts out a bright yellow but time and sunlight will eventually turn it about the color of rosewood.

Here is a cedar blank I'm working on. Our Cricket 22 is too long for my youngest grandchildren so I'm going to make a shorter one that can be swapped out.

The roof on my work shop leaks a little. It has good natural light and ventilation. It's not temperature controlled. Most of my tools are power tools but I have to provide the power.Attachment 160769

Wolfer--I'm not familiar with hedge, other than the ones we grow here in gardens as an ornamental/border plant that requires trimming. It seldom gets much larger than maybe 2" diameter--so you must be using something else. What is it exactly?

It has many names. Hedge Apple, horse Apple, Bois D'arc , Osage Orange and some of the names around that here can't be printed on cast boolits.

Thanks Wolfer, I'll give that idea a try.

Hedge is a thorny tree that can easily exceed three feet in diameter. It is a close cousin to mulberry trees, but has significantly tougher wood. Dad always said that if a hedge fence post would last one hundred years, a mulberry post would last seventy.

The sprouts are easily trainable when young and it will make an impenetrable fence after a few years.

Here is one link that has a bit about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera

Robert

really nice looking rifle!!! i wish my krag looked like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4719dave

Well I think you did a great job ...im not a wood guy or collector so just saying good job .

---

I have to agree. Looks mighty fine to me.

I have "The NRA Gunsmithing Guide Updated", with a table showing a quality not specified in that Wikipedia article. Osage orange has a lower index of contraction and expansion than any other common gunstock wood. I assume they mean cross-grain movement, as lengthwise expansion is less, and less important, for all woods I know. It is about the best bow wood that is anywhere near easy to obtain nowadays. For that purpose it has to be cut at just the right size, before the grain starts to get twisty. But that is exactly the same with yew.

Quarter sawn is the best kin of timber for warpage-sensitive applications, and not worse for anything, except for economy in terms of getting the maximum amount of timber per tree. I have always found the term a strange one, and would prefer radially sawn. With small to medium logs it is just that. They cut the log in half, and then rotate each 180 degree segment while cutting slices that all point at the heart of the tree. Larger logs are cut on a compromise system and called quarter sawn, but you don't often get really large logs of good gunstock wood.

Ebony is very prone to developing cracks, in drying or when a short cap is fixed to a wood which expands and contracts more. I would prefer black bufffalo horn. I have one ebony forend cap which is very short, and I made the surface to be glued on the 4in. roller of my belt sanding machine. Then I shaped the walnut to match with graphite powder for spotting. The ebony grain actually runs at about sixty degrees to the bore axis. It slows penetration of moisture into the walnut about as well as anything, and must be about the hardest kind of forend cap to get knocked off.

My photos have returned, so here's how I solved my sling swivel mounting problem.
First, I started with a piece of 4140 steel that I had in the scrap box. I parted off a slice on the lathe. I could have done it with a hacksaw, but it would have take awhile.

Attachment 161135

Next I measured the diameter of the barrel at the desired point of attachment, then coated the slice of metal with Dykem, let it dry and then drew a picture of what I wanted to make with a scribe. I utilized my drill press to remove the metal where the barrel would sit, and then clamped the part in my bench vise and removed the corners with the hacksaw.

Attachment 161136

Hedge is popular for duck call barrels also..

From here on out it was pretty much a matter of filing and grinding away the sharp edges and rounding the corners. The bench vise aids the process immensely.

Attachment 161141Attachment 161140


Attachment 161137Attachment 161138Attachment 161139

When the part was pretty well shaped I drilled and tapped the bottom for the sling swivel. I decided to utilize the one that had come with the rifle. Detachable would be nice, but a long screw is needed to reach through the forend.

Attachment 161142

This illustrates the idea of how the part is to fit to the rifle once the appropriate area of the stock is inletted to accept it.

Attachment 161143

Here's the completed installation. Now the jerking and pulling of carrying afield will be borne by the barrel rather than the stock's forend.

Attachment 161145Attachment 161146Attachment 161144

And, like I mentioned much earlier, this gives additional integrity to the stock/barrel as there normally are no action screws forward of the front trigger guard screw. To quote Forrest Gump, "And that's all I've got to say about that."


Fini.

DG

That is a nicely done sling mount. I have never liked the idea of attaching the swivel to wood alone with a rifle which doesn't have much in the magazine area - for example the Krag with the wood underneath, or my Mannlicher-Schoenauer with its thin sides.

If it is intended to draw the barrel down into the stock, it would probably be better extending well above the stock level, or even a complete hoop. While it could be soldered instead, more steel would allow the barrel to slide longitudinally as it expands, like the nickel silver bushing at the forend tip of the early Schmidt-Rubin rifles.

I once had to restock a Martini carbine in .45-65 or some European chambering so like it as to have no functional difference. It would recoil too much for that very light carbine, which would also wobble a bit much in an offhand shot. So I glassed just over a foot of half-inch square mild steel into the barrel channel, and threaded both the sling swivel into that. The only stock mounting screw was close behind that, into a stud silver soldered to the barrel, and I used thin brown rubber sheet inlaid into the surface of the forend which butted against the receiver.

Any sling swivel can be unscrewed if the loop on one of the pair is mounted on a collar which rotates around its mounting screw. It inspires more trust in me than those rotating or button-pressing detachment devices. If it is the front swivel it also makes it lie better across the hand as a shooting sling.

I have a special place in my heart for the Krag rifles. My Dad had one he hunted with for years when I was little kid and we were about as wealthy as dust bowl farmers.

Der

Nice job and thanks for asking what hedge is!

Actually, thanks for the enlightenment! I originated in N. Calif. and my mother, who was originally from Kansas, used to point out some trees growing along the highway at one location and say, "Those are Osage Oranges--but you can't eat the fruit." I had not heard the other names.
Now I've been an Oregonian for 28 years and have never seen one here. I suppose they're around somewhere.

My uncle up in Pennsylvania had an 1898 that had not been chopped. He did however had a side mounted scope installed. That being said after he passed away I had often thought about asking my aunt about possible buying it. Over 20 years since his passing and pretty sure she may not have it anymore. But did manage to find one that had been cut down and they installed a ramp front sight and kept the 1901 rear sight. Looked long and hard for one with a decent bore and got lucky with this one. The funny thing is the dealer said it came out of Pennsylvania. Frank

Well, Frank, we'll hope that it isn't the same one. Some of them can be restored to original if the barrel wasn't cut and remains at 30". Actually, I guess any of them could be re-barreled and be restored to "as-issued", but original barrels are all take-offs and in short supply. It's kind of become a non-stop serial cannibalization of existing specimens for parts to sell on e-bay to supply guys building them up. What is sort of surprising, to me anyway, is the number that were sporterized but the barrels left original. I mean, who hunts with a 30" barrel? Obviously someone did. When they occasionally appear on the online auctions one can buy them and then "stretch" the cutoff stocks back to full length by adding a piece of walnut where it's been removed. There is a science to it in that if done properly the joint is beneath the rear barrel band and undetectable unless the band is removed. Here's some photos of the two that I did. I wish that I'd taken a full sequence of photos like I did with the fore end job that started this thread, but sometimes when I intend to do so I take a "before" photo, jump into the project and the next thing I know the job is done and I can only take an "after" photo. The first photo shows some projects that were waiting to be done, including the two Krags to be stretched, and the second photo shows the completed rifles with an uncut original. I'll let you guess which is which.









Attachment 162776Attachment 162777

I do want to say that I don't dislike the cut off rifles, and in fact prefer them for their handiness. The Krag carbine has to be one of the few military rifles that was dimensioned close to being an ideal sporter, and when it's not practical to restore them to a full length rifle I try and make the cut offs as close to a carbine as practicable. But in the end, "it is what it is." The genuine carbines are getting more difficult to find, because they were so useable without any alteration that they got used up. The ones that are still presentable are very collectable and become more expensive every year.

Looks great!