doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com the biggest stock dent ,you've ever steamed out

Would a heat gun work as well as an iron?

Joe a heat gun will not work successfully because there is more to it than just heat involved. The reason for the cloth is three fold one, to hold the liquid two, stop the hot iron scorching the wood and three act as the steam generator. When you apply the hot iron to the cloth you immediately start to generate steam also preventing the steam from leaving the cloth in that direction, this in turn increases the pressure in the cloth in fact for a split second you do get some super heated steam generated so with one way of escape blocked it exits the cloth on the wood side driving its self into the wood hopefully raising the dent by re moisturizing the woo fibers. I have found toweling to work better than any other cloth because it holds a lot of water mix.

Well, I tried and I tried, but I didn't see much improvement, that being said, the stock had received a fair bit of damage, in addition
to that dent in the pistol grip, a chunk was broken off the toe, and there was a repaired crack in the stock just behind the receiver.
Someone rounded off the wood by the toe and put a recoil pad on and shortened the toe on that to match the missing wood and refinished
the stock. I spliced a new piece onto the toe, fitted a Winchester buttplate and reglued the crack behind the receiver. I wonder if with
all the years that dent had been there and with the stock having been refinished with the dent in place, just how much improvement could be expected.
That being said, I am grateful for the advice received here. I just have to fill the grain and refinish the stock.