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See the two little oak(?) pegs on those beautifully cut and crafted patches Middy, that shows the masses that the rifle was patched by a REAL Armourer. No grotty glue lines, no gorilla paste or plastic wood filler just craftsmanship. Make sure that you don't round the corners or edges off. Is that a crack across the undercut nose cap area? It looks like a deep scratch from here..... If that fore-end came across my bench with a crack like that I'd open up the split and inject it with some old hot bone animal glue and clamp up. It's not as good as current aero spec wood adhesive of course. Then I'd drill through from one side to the other and knock in a tight fitting oak peg then make off good.
And if someone sees it in 20 years time I'd say 'yep........ been patched by an Armourer and it'll still be there in another 40 years too'. JUst shows that it's been there, done it, got the tee shirt. JUst DON'T round off those edges any more
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Peter,
Outstanding suggestion. Yes, it is a crack, but not a through crack... yet. I was thinking about using my "usual" technique of 2 part epoxy high strength adhesive. I don't use the 5 minute:nono: stuff. I let it soak into the wood fibers, therefore using the 2hr stuff. However, you bring up a good point about the peg. That isn't too hard to do, and would clearly indicate the repair (vs. trying in vain to hide it). As you know, there is a point of "over restoration". And clearly this rifle was used!:thup:
I haven't used the hot bone animal glue. Something for me to look into! :)
As a side discussion, what type of paint was used in the "banding"? I am thinking that this is something I am going to clearly look into doing right. It is a gun, so the solvents used in normal cleaning would eventually come in contact. What would you recommend? Recommend that I do have the bayonet to do. I can say that the banding paint has been applied rather "thick" in all observed locations. The paint has clearly wrinkled from over application.
Also, as a side comment, the repair in the buttstock is clearly "above" the current wood link. While I don't have a SMLE buttstock for comparison, you can see that this was a masterful and competent repair, but not a technique to "blend" the repair. :thup:
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We used a paint called 'hard implement enamel' for the white bands on DP's. THere was a special part number for it but I suppose any enamel will do. The WORST and most destructive solvent we encountered was insect repellent in the tropics but you won't be anywhere that I'm sure. It'd melt AR15/M16 and SLR plastic handguards before your very eyes. Same with M-60 butts too..................
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A nice to have in any collection, I remeber having DP SLRs when i was in cadets in the late 80s they had been properly done at lithgow till some swine broke into the armoury and stole a heap of them thinking they could be reactivated. The poor fools, the police then found them scattered around once the theives figured they couldnt fix them.
But once again it is a peice of the family tree and should look a treat once you do her up!
Regards
Fergs
