Ah I see. Well for the sake of originality I want to keep the old barrel despite its shape. There is also the fact that I paid too much in the beginning and don't want to spend more.

That is what I was thinking for the fore-end but as Tbone said I could always screw it up and make things worse. It might even be that the fore-end is warped anyhow, so for now it is more Oil and turps. Cheers Baal.