Hiding repaired cracks in stocks

Morning all, I had to repair a badly damaged walnut stock a few weeks ago, basically a previous poor repair with ebony pegs added.

This was further compromised by Parcel Force who caused further damage during their laughable service....

Looked like they had used it to hammer home fence posts....

Anyway, took it all apart and steadily rebuilt it with wood epoxy resin glue and walnut side grain plugs....

Happy with a strong repair, however I have a few ribbons of epoxy glue showing where previous wood loss made a seamless repair impossible, has anyone a good way of making them less obvious?

Fiebing's leather dye, the alcohol version, not the water based version, works very well as a wood dye if you want a wood dye. They do it in a good range of colours.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

a few ribbons of epoxy glue showing

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You DO mean the epoxy? It's like a two tube glue?

I have always dyed any glue used for stock repair black.. I usually used Acraglas gel as it is designed for gun work and is extremely stable. Grain is black, not brown..

If you have already glued the stock then to some extent the horse has already bolted..!I tend to try and pack any voids with slivers of wood set in resin. My best advice now is to use a scalpel to cut fine lines into the glue and then fill with black dyed adhesive such as Acraglas (which comes with dye packs).. once you have taken the glue lines back to the surface, I would then fill and wax the wood to dull down the joins.

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Originally Posted by bombdoc

have always dyed any glue used for stock repair black.. I usually used Acraglas gel as it is designed for gun work and is extremely stable. Grain is black, not brown..

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

Fiebing's leather dye, the alcohol version, not the water based version, works very well as a wood dye if you want a wood dye.

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bombdoc and Flying10uk both are spot on, you can use the black leather dye or Brownell's black dye thinned with spirts (to shades of black) with a fine paintbrush to follow the grain across the break, joining them back up. This will blend and will keep the eye from focusing on the break.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

You DO mean the epoxy? It's like a two tube glue?

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That's the one Jim, a special two pack that uses wood resins in its makeup...

---------- Post added at 11:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------

Thanks for the advice guys....

Attachment 110365Attachment 110366Attachment 110367Attachment 110368

Here's the repair guys, as can be seen, quite the mission.

Practise some carving or checkering in that area.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Here's the repair guys, as can be seen, quite the mission.

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Yup, those are some repairs! big challenge in hiding those. The right side looks to be off another rifle? Are these stocks hard to come by?

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Here's the repair

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Looks good now...

Don't try to hide your wood working skills.

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I had a job with it, perhaps I'm expecting too much....
I literally ran out of G clamps and places to put the bloody things...

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Originally Posted by usabaker

Yup, those are some repairs! big challenge in hiding those. The right side looks to be off another rifle? Are these stocks hard to come by?

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The rifles a rare 1950 dated BSA Airsporter Mk1 Air gun. The stock was made in three parts. Post war austerity meant walnut was hard to come by, so they could cut the wood from small blanks and glue on the sides, quite often these side pieces are beech.

Original stocks rarely come up and frequently require major surgery to repair!

I'm mid way through a lockdown project to rebuild two of these beutifully engineed and very attractive rifles to best possible condition.

The work continues.....

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

The rifles a rare 1950 dated BSA Airsporter Mk1 Air gun. The stock was made in three parts. Post war austerity meant walnut was hard to come by, so they could cut the wood from small blanks and glue on the sides, quite often these side pieces are beech. Original stocks rarely come up and frequently require major surgery to repair!

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Thank you for the info and insight! What a fantastic project. I need to stop asking questions, now I have yet another rifle on my list to look for.

I didn't have any a month ago, now I have two under rebuild and two active bids on Mk2 and a late full stocked Stutzen Carbine coming up for auction on Thursday....

Getting a 'tad' out of hand!

Ref post 12: Quick-grip clamps are quite good and they come in various sizes, makes and price ranges. The one thing that they all have in common is that they can be used one handed.

How To Clamp Wood Using Quick Grip Clamps - YouTube

Cheers F10, I have a few of them and they are useful, but I still find small G clamps the preferred option for rifle stocks due to the fact you can work all around the job at the same time.

The best thing I have found for clamping stocks is the length of surgical rubber tubing that Brownell sells.. You wrap it around the stock and it can apply huge amounts of pressure but leaves no marks as the pressure is distributed across the surface of the wood..

Absolutely brilliant and much better than parallel type clamps.

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Originally Posted by bombdoc

The best thing I have found for clamping stocks is the length of surgical rubber tubing

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Yes, or it can be found at most medical supply shops where you'd buy handicap or healthcare supplies...I had some for years I used.

I haven't a clue where to buy surgical rubber tubing.

So I use an old inner tube from a bicycle tyre.