Question related to rebuilding draws

[Cdn303]

Hi

I have this posted over at CGN, but no responses.
I have a No5 that need the draws rebuilt. I’ve read Peter Laidler’s article on stocking up a forend at least 5 times now, plus numerous other threads at CGN and here. I feel pretty confident in being able to rebuild the draws.
The current draws. It’s quite obvious that there are not bearing evenly. The person who rebuild this the first time aligned the wood the same direction and the stock. From what I’ve read from PL, this should be done with oak with the grain running perpendicular to the stock


My question is this. Here is a picture of the back of the forend. Circled in red are the only two areas that are bearing on the socket. Should I lightly sand the back of the stock below the reinforce strap so that it will bears evenly across? I would do this before rebuilding the draws, so that I can have the draws push the stock back the few thou that will be sanded off.


I suppose a secondary question will be, in your experience is pegging the rebuild from the top or side better? This stock has had the draws rebuilt once already, with pegs inserted from the side. I have another rifle that has had the draws rebuild with pegs inserted from the top of the draw.

EDIT I've pulled the old draws off. They and the pegs just popped out, so I guess I'll use the existing holes.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

The direction of the grain is one of those things. You are taught to do it as per the grain of the fore-end while you're learning the job in the classroom but out in the REAL world, you do it as per the way that the older and more experienced Armourers tell you. Grain to run parallel to the plane of the draws in the rifle body.

If it was my rifle I'd clean off the rear of the fore-end and smooth off the face of the butt socket as it LOOKS like there's some protrusions there. Rust maybe? The fore-end must be drawn up tight to the butt socket. That's why they are called draws!

JUse the old peg holes but slightly oversize and made of oak

[Cdn303]

Thanks Peter. Those two spots that are circled are the only two points that I could see were bearing on the socket. I'll take a file and slowly smooth the whole thing up.

[Cdn303]

So before I glue this in, have I got it right?

[ssj]

What glue?

Stock looks very oil impregnated to me?

[Peter Laidler]

Looks right to me but only YOU know if it's a good tight fit. As per SSJ above. Make sure that the fore-end is degreased as best you can too

[Thunderbox]

Make sure that the fore-end is degreased as best you can too

I suppose everyone has their own technique. I use a micro blowtorch to carefully heat up the wood. This causes the oil to bubble out, and then it can be mopped up with some tissue paper. You can singe the wood a bit, but the resulting surface is quite dry and gives a very good adhesive bond.

[WarPig1976]

Hardens the wood too, I like that idea TB. Definitely a big boy technique....

[Cdn303]

Thanks for the idea TB. I think I'll us a heat gun instead though. So far I've hit the area with several sessions of Circa 1850. That got most of the surface oil off, but I did want to get some more oil out of the area first. (Just spent 1 1/2 hours doing some internet searches.)

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

While we're on the subject I'm going to sneak in with my own question. I have at least one of these repairs on my "to do" list and was thinking that the repair block should be laid out with the end grain running more or less perpendicular to the stock center line as I've tried to illustrate. Is this correct? Am I nitpicking?