I have to admit that the prospect of shaping the insert into the notch had been what was holding up my attempting the repair. I hadn't thought of simply removing the indented part of the notch. This makes sense, in the absence of a master pattern of the insert. Modern adhesives like epoxy will certainly do the trick, even with Ebony, which is prone to shrinkage.

One modification I'll use is protecting the forend wood with a first layer of blue painters tape, followed with a layer of metal HVAC tape. When rough shaping the insert, I'll actually sand down through the metal tape, until the blue tape starts to show. This allows a better degree of rough sanding, so there's little chance of removing excess wood. This also works when installing recoil pads when you don't want to refinish the buttstock.

Thanks
Ken

Last edited by Ken61; 05/11/15 08:43 AM.
I prefer wood to plastic, leather to nylon, waxed cotton to Gore-Tex, and split bamboo to graphite.