Restoring a sporterized P13... My turn to play

[browningautorifle]

I've used Febing's leather die to turn wood the color I wanted without effort...then oil.

[tatou]

I've used Febing's leather die to turn wood the color I wanted without effort...then oil.

Yes. Awesome stuff, I've used it on several of my restorations too.
It gives the wood that red-ish color i see a lot of those P13's seem to have.
It also matches different types of wood very nicely.
The technique i use was given to me by Englishman_Ca and gives a great result.
Saturate the wood as much as possible with the die, as many coats as it will take, then oil with very fine steel wool.
The steel wool removes the die that has not penetrated in the pores and you can adjust the tones by rubbing more on dark areas and rubbing less on lighter areas.
You complete the process with what he called ''boning'' ... basically rubbing a bone or somekind of tool to sorta ''polish'' the surface, giving it a ''handled'' for years look.
I'm not as good as he was but i had good results doing things that way.
I'm not at that point in the restoration yet but i will make tests on the scrap fore end tip and new wood pieces i saved, to see how it goes.

[baltimoreed]

I’ve also used leather dye to match repair patches on stocks. Works good.

[tatou]

Nose cap finally done and screwed on.
I hate drilling for those screw holes ... i've fitted probably at least a dozen nose caps and only ever got one drilled without having to fiddle with the hole to get it right.
For some reason that is something i just cannot get a hang to it.

[Salt Flat]

Nice- The fun part is standing back at each step and feeling good about a project. Thanks for letting us share that. Salt Flat

[browningautorifle]

Looks nice and square, looks good.

[Promo]

Your front end restoration looks so excellent that if you had not posted the pictures showing the process, most would otherwise would consider it just a weird duffle cut.

[tatou]

The fun part is standing back at each step and feeling good about a project.

Agreed and some steps are more satisfying than others. Some are small but popup more and give a sense of completion like the next ones, below.

Looks nice and square, looks good.

Thank you

Your front end restoration looks so excellent that if you had not posted the pictures showing the process, most would otherwise would consider it just a weird duffle cut.

And that is partially why i showed the whole process... to prove this was all done from scratch.
I know some would say buying a new stock would have been easier and faster... but where's the fun in that.

[tatou]

The devil is in the details they say.... Finished a a few more today.
Installed the pilling swivel... had to thin the lug since it was too wide.


Since the stock was initially sanded during the ''sporterization'', the new wood had to follow the same profile. That meant the volley sight disc would sit higher than the wood near the bottom. I cheated by installing it at a slight angle and in order to do so i had to make a shim to go under it.
I also drilled the hole that goes though the stock to secure it in place... and to my amazement i was able to align it perfectly the first time. A small win that i gladly take.

I fabricated the small lower band stop pin using a common nail, rounded the tips, oil blackened and installed it.



Finally i had to remove a bit of wood of the inletting for the butt swivel base so it sat lower in the stock.


There's a bunch of small tweaking, fitting and tiny repairs i still want to make before final finishing (nothing worth showing) but if i'm not mistaking that completes all fabrication work.

[tatou]

After taking a bit of a break i got back to work.
Tweaks, fitting, repairs and final shaping is done.
Most of those small things are not visible unless you know what you are searching for but they needed some attention none the less.
I knew i needed to fix them and that's a good enough reason for me.
Unless i forgot something or made an oversight the wood is DONE ... well except stain and oil.

I have a new bottle of FIEBING'S dye coming in soon but in the meantime i'll run some tests with what i have left on some scrap pieces.