A disaster under the wood?

[englishman_ca]

The crack at the back is quite common to see. There are no doubt many great shooting rifles with a similar crack unknown to their owners. The tie plate is doing its job.

Epoxy might be a little difficult to get in there, plus the surface has to be oil free for epoxy glue to adhere. A syringe squirting acetone might clean it out, but keep it off the surface finish, which might be difficult.

If you must try to fix that crack, then use super glue and clamp it tight.
Super glue, or cyanoacrylate as it is known is not sensitive to oil. It is great stuff for certain applications. With a fine glue line, the crack will not open up there again. If it does crack, it will be in the wood beside the glue line.

Cyanoacrylate Set - Lee Valley Tools

Of course, the best fix would be a replacement fore stock. A lot depends on how many rounds you intend to put through it. Casual plinking with light loads, or heavy duty long strings at the range.
For now, if it shoots ok, I would probably just keep shooting the rifle and see what happens, making sure all screws are tight, and keeping an eye the wood directly in front of the trigger guard front screw. If the stock were to degenerate further, a crack would likely appear here.
Known as 'the damned crack', it was routinely repaired by gluing and fitting a cross screw. A Brit armourers' technique that was extensively used in India by Ishapore Arsenal. Hence the term 'Ishy screw'.

[pisco]

we must have access to different oven cleaners i use one from a COLES store never had any problems like that
after 15 minutes i wash off with water and use a old tooth brush to scrub the crap off ,it leaves you with a clean piece of wood to work with
i have even used it for cleaning up the metal work and i have never had any problems

[Brian Dick]

If you want to attempt to fix it properly, you need to cut out all the buggered wood to as close to the tie plate as you can, glue in a block of oak that's angled and a bit oversize on the front where the sear lugs contact and insert and glue two 1/4" dowels horizontally, then refit the draws and cut out the center with a razor saw. I've done a couple of SMLE's and they turned out perfect using only one horizontal dowel. Yours is much worse and will need two in my humble opinion. That's the only way it can be done without using glass bedding compounds and it'll be tedious and time consuming to do correctly. Other than that, the only recourse is to scrap the forend and properly fit a replacement. I won't blow smoke up your rear end. You are wasting your time, ammo and money shooting it as is with the screws tight. Some here will obviously disagree and that's OK, (to each his own), but the bedding in the rear of the forend is very important and the way it is now is useless firewood at best.

I tried oven cleaner when I was young and inexperienced. I reckon it's OK on tight grain hardwood that's on it's last legs anyhow but I'd never use it on anything valuable. It will destroy crap wood like coachwood that's on the soft side to start with and turn it a nice ugly shade of grey. It's a lazy man's method and has no place in proper restoration work. I've mentioned before the guy that taught me about clear ammonia. His forte was restoring super valuable antique Winchesters and muskets. I tried it once and have been using it ever since. It works perfectly and doesn't hurt anything. Just gently clean, rinse with cool water, dry, stain if you want and apply finish when done.

[pisco]

brian when you say clear ammonia here in oz we can get a ammonia that is still a concentrate ,do you wash the wood down and just wash off

[mrclark303]

Another source of ammonia comes to mind, but I'm not sure I would want to use it!

That said, the very same 'home manufactured ammonia' was used by our great grandparents for browning iron barrels before carding them to a finish and setting with oil..

[browningautorifle]

the very same 'home manufactured ammonia' was used by our great grandparents

And was collected by women during the Civil war in the US for use in Niter bluing...

[Brian Dick]

I buy clear ammonia from Dollar General in half gallon jugs. It's not a concentrate as far as I know and I use it straight. I have a dedicated plastic Brownells tank that's long enough to submerge a forend. Just submerge the grungy wood and let sit a few minutes, clean it gently with a fine Scotchbrite pad, (mine are so well used they feel soft actually). Use a soft bristle toothbrush to clean out the inletting and bearings; then rinse with cool water, blow off the excess with an air hose or wipe off with a blue shop towel, sit it in the sun and let it dry. Once done, you can fit/glue patches if necessary. It will also raise the grain a tad including little scratches and dents where the grain isn't broken. Once repaired, slather on the RLO with a sponge brush, buff out gently with 0000 steel wool in circular motions, wipe off the excess making sure you don't let let build up in the inletting and bearings. Repeat until you get the desired finish or the wood stops absorbing the oil. Simple.

No, I haven't ****ed on anybodies projects yet. At a dollar a jug for the ammonia, it's cheaper than beer!

[pisco]

any how after all the advice are you going to shoot the rifle as is rebed it or go new wood

[Singer B]

The type of material you are trying to clean off your wood should dictate what you use. If you have a stock that has the original finish that you can't replace (like an Arisaka), I just use warm water to remove surface grime. If it is a stock that is factory finished using a linseed oil, I'll just use Hoppes #9 to remove the old oil and grime then replenish the wood with RLO. If the stock has been refinished with some kind of paint, varnish or lacquer that is not original to that gun, I will use Citristrip to remove that material. A toothbrush and shop towels will help remove the heaviest layers and not harm any stamped markings. Citristrip is rather messy but it is more "natural" than the other options and doesn't submit your old wooden pieces to really harsh chemicals. As always, research what the original finish was for your firearm so you can match it. I also often consult this website before I service the wood on a gun to make sure I'm not going to negatively impact the collectability of the firearm or ruin its value.

[Thelionheart777]

any how after all the advice are you going to shoot the rifle as is rebed it or go new wood

Sorry for not responding sooner, I have been working on a legal brief and barely had a moment to breathe. I am definitely going to get a new stock, I am weighing my options and prices right now to see what I can afford.

Thank you all for your very helpful advice!