doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stock Repair Info needed

I'm in the process of refinishing a stock and forend. I'm using the Wonka method describer here. It actually worked great for stripping it. I need to soak it in the alcohol a little longer to remove the oil. However, after it was stripped I noticed a 1/2" long x 1/16" wide gouge in the side of the stock that must has been filled in before. I never noticed it before. I suspect that it was filled in and finished so well that I never noticed it before the strip job.

My question is, what can I use to fill this in so that I can also hide this imperfection? I want to make sure it takes the stain and doesn't shrink or crack later.

As always, thank you in advance and have a Happy New Year!

Elmers Carpenter's Wood Filler will take a stain and may work for you. I like to use Brownell's Acraglass Gel mixed to a darker color than the wood. It's a permanent filler that needs no special care.

Have you tried steaming it to raise the gouge. Use an iron and two thicknesses of a wet t-shirt, apply the iron for several seconds several times and see if the gouge raises to near level. Do not let the t-shirt become dry because the temp will go too high.

TomC,
Try to steam it out as explained above by Builder. IMO a small scratch (refinished) is better looking than any of the scratch fillers - caveat: Unless you choose a high gloss finish which will mask the shinyness of the filled area. These filled spots really stand out on a low gloss oil finished gun.

If the scratch is too deep to leave alone after steaming and light sanding, look at the shellac filler sticks from Brownells. They come in several flavors of brown, and are pretty easy to use.

TomC,
If you can get away with a little sand paper work in that area,I would recomend sanding in with some of your finish oil. You will get a paste to form with the sawdust and oil that will make the crack disappear. I have used this method many times with success.You might want to practice on a piece of scrap first.

you can often make invisible repairs with regular acraglass (old style-NOT the gel!!!). Do not mix floc with it so it is just a clear epoxy. If the scratch is deep, then you may need to fill it in a couple of applications, do a little over half each time, then sand down to the wood. I have done this and ccould not find the imperfection after finishing the stock. This works especially well in the checkering, but it also works in all areas of the stock. Ihad read this a long time ago and did not beleive it would work, thinking I would always be able to see the area with the thick epoxy. But I tried it and found I was wrong-it really does a good job of hiding imperfections.

If the wood fibers have not been cut, the steam out whatever you can as posted above. Even if the fibers have been cut, it won't hurt to steam it to see if some of the wood on the bottom of the gouge is just compressed and not cut. We can't say without seeing it.

And as stated above, if not too deep then you can reshape the stock and take out the imperfection. Again, without a picture we can't say what fixes might be best.

On the sides of a stock a random orbital sander can be used to blend in a lot of heavy scratches if you are doing a complete refinish.
bill

Tom,
I'm a real believer in raising any dent or gouge that didn't loose the wood from the gouge. It may be slow to rise and may not seem to be rising at all for a while. Keep steaming and all of a sudden it'll seem to rise all at once. A clothing iron will work using just the tip or a spoon heated with a gas stove or propane torch has proven to work better on stubborn dents for me. Builder's recommendation of a couple layers of T-shirts is what I use also. Be persistant. BTW, I've raised some with broken fibers, this doesn't seem to make any difference.

Thanks for all the info. The gouge is missing the wood and fairly deep - about 1/16 - 1/8". It is not just a dent so I will need to fill it with something. It looks like there was a soft spot or knot in the wood that fell out when I stripped it. I'm worried that if I fill it with something and it doesn't take the stain well, that spot will stick out like a sore thumb. It's on the top of the stock about 1" from the butt so it's in a very visible area. Marc's suggestion of the clear epoxy sounds interesting.

I did use the steam method for some smaller dents and it worked well. I used an iron and a wet/damp rag. I also sanded a couple of the larger dents that did not steam out completely making sure not to round corners.

At this point it is completely stripped and I'm working on removing dents and scratches. This is not a high end gun - just a Stevens 5100 20 gauge that I will use for my brush busting grouse gun. I'll want to put a good looking but hard and durable coating on it after staining.