Ishapore 2A1 handguard repair

I finally found a 2A1 and was so excited I missed the huge chunk missing on the upper hand guard. A few photos before & after repair. Easier than tracking down a new hand guard. Cheaper only because I did not charge myself for the time.

Good job HOH.......

Nice job. I think the official version was to trim them off. I've seen lots like that and thought Peter said it was how they did it. I always like them present though.

After the late 50's or so they could be chopped off square BUT only if they had broken away cleanly. If the break extended into forwards (or rearwards for the rear handguard of course) then it had to be repaired properly as shown by HoH and dovetailed as shown in photo 3. I don't think that there was enough meat left to peg it - but there you go. If the wood was too oily to take glue you could replace the h/g. If you could find one in Ordnance! We did a load as apprentices but used to use a totally different colour of wood to illustrate our skills to whoever was marking the work. Additionally, the grain of the patched ears had to run exactly parallel to the original handguard wood too AND the new patches (we always had to do both.....) had to lie flat with the rest of the h/g. What a xxxxxxx chore.......

But, that said, great to see high quality work. All this ended for us with the departure of the old No8 and L4 guns. I wonder if anyone is even taught wood patching now. What about L7 wood butts Skippy?

The good ones to see were at the end of life L42's where No4 rear HG's were undercut, patched, pegged (through the rivet holes as I recall.....) and shaped to conform to the extended L42 format which was deemed NLA. Always a bad omen on a spare parts demand. Those dreaded words 'No Longer Available'. Especially when it wasn't followed by an annotation '...use B1/1005 xxxxxxxxxxxx modified to current EMER spec. Anyway, some master craftsmen could do these to extend the life of a rifle already years past its sell-by date.

Nice job HOH blended beautifully

Thanks guys. Your approval more than offsets the time invested.

I am a bit surprised that per Mr. Laidler (whom I am quite certain did a couple in his time) the dovetail idea was the correct way to do the patch as I just guessed at the proper way to do the joining. I must confess the brass peg is the original stuck thru a relief hole in the patch. A little acetone for cosmoline cleanup some good wood glue and clamps & lots of hand fitting & file work. Very enjoyable project.

A dovetail just gives the rear end of the patch a bit more support. Think of a butt heel or toe patch...... Then an oak peg or two at the other end and the patches '........stand firm forever' as they say in some mystic circles. But a good job HoH and always good to see......

As promised. Before/after cleanup & an example of an armorers repair. The cosmolie on this rifle seemed to have solidified to the consistancy of metomorphic rock making for some difficulty in removal.