No.4 fore end wood patching under chamber

[bow]

Hi !
We konw that No.4 must have good bearing at socket-fore end, at the draws, near main screw and further for more than 1 inch, and under the cartridge chamber / under the so so called knox form... Now i have learnt to patch the draws using good oak wood instead of acraglas. Now i'd like to learn how to patch the wood under knox form using only wood. The simple part is to take away with a chisel or amilling machine half an inch of wood and to glue in new hard wood. Then the hardest part is to use a wood gouge to build a good bearing under the knox form. What's the correct way arourers followed to build solid contact here?

I do not still want to use acraglas, i want to act like an old armourer...

Information

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[RJW NZ]

hmm, we have occasionally had pics of rifles with wedges of wood in this position, clearly armorer's work. I'm interested to know their process of how high/thick to make the patch.

[muffett.2008]

i want to act like an old armourer...

Head down to the local boozer and dribble **** with your mates.

Joking aside, if you preshape the top of the insert before you fit it, then use the action to press it into place, it should drop onto steps in the original wood.
Have fun.

[bow]

I agree with you muffet... when i have to patch draws i use this method. This gives to me atight and accurate fit. But it doesn't work when you patch knox form area: to have it works you sould have a good shaped wood..

[muffett.2008]

I've used this method twice, each one a great success, with the draws I insert a complete block and then cutout.

[bow]

i do the same for draws-sear lugs. Doing the same for knox form area, if i had correctly understood, means to patch new hard wood, properly but not exactly shaped and then to riassemle the rfle tightening the main screw, right? Step after step the chamber area wood machine away the excess wood and will build her groove itself, (i hope you get what i mean , sorry for my poor english).

[muffett.2008]

Yeah Bow, preshape to a good fit around the chamber, ensure the block is a neat fit in the stock, cutout should be stepped to ensure block bottoms on ledge.
When happy, apply glue and start block in cutout, use the action to push home, locking screws tight.
You should need to do only minor finishing work. Don't forget a smear of grease on metal to prevent glue from bonding to action.

[tbonesmith]

I've done them as essentially a morticed block, I've chiselled out a rectangle and glued in a block, and also milled out the recess and done the same. Both about 5-8mm deep. But I've seen old repairs that I assume are old armourers repairs where it has been a hardwood tapered dovetailed patch driven from the rear. This is similar to that sometimes seen on the front trigger guard screw recess. I can't quite see the point of the former though, as with the barrel in place it would be impossible for the patch to fall out anyway. Still, tapered dovetails seem to be the way it was done.

[bow]

Probably a dovetail, instead of a squared block, provides a bigger surface to glue in... but I'm not sure i had fully unerstood what "tapered dovetail" means.. was tapered dovetail pointed towards main screw looking like a wedge ? if so, how did old armourers mill away old wood in an accurate way? Or the tapered dovetail was pointed towards the muzzle? Too many question , i know. But all is very interesting...

[Peter Laidler]

To be honest Bow, I would not worry too much about the technical terms here. If I was you, and using modern wood adhesives, I would just mill (or carefully chisel) the area out and make a hard-wood insert that fits well into the hole that you have milled out. There really is no need to dovetail the insert. After all, it ain't going nowhere except staying put!

THEN remove the hardwood wood block and slowly file/rasp it to conform to the contour of the barrel reinforce. When it is getting close to perfect, glue it into place and (if you really need to secure it, do it with two pegs from above, through the block and into - but NOT through - the fore-end) and finish off the radius with the block secure in the fore-end.

This is the way we used to do it to raise the muzzle seating on otherwise good/serviceable fore-ends