Bark inclusion ideas

[SDSmlf]

I am still in favor of leaving the knot as is, though the shellac method in the Potterfield is easy enough and looks good, at least for while in my experience (I’ve seen such shellac repairs develop checking in them over time).

Just as an example of factory knothole from over 50 years ago, here is a photograph of a Winchester 94 I purchased new while in high school with a fairly large repair, though I’m not sure what the repair material was, the old man called it plastic and I got the gun with a discount and a few boxes of shells tossed in.

For what it is worth, the bluing is about worn off the gun, but ‘patch’ in the stock is still holding.

 

[oldwood]

Use dark brown stained epoxie in the void and crack. Don't worry about some "expert" inferring your rifle is substandard due to an epoxie patch on it. Can't please everyone , their loss. For yrs. , I had a standing order for cracked , defaced , mineral streaked , ant and termite damaged gunstocks. Made a lot of fine guns of reduced price wood. Never heard anyone gripe about , " OH , this fine rifle is so defaced by a termite , I just can't hunt another day with it. " Yea , right. Most critics are simply jealous of your work. Have courage , just fix it.

 

[Texcl2]

I’m not worried about that, I like to have as close to a period looking repair as possible. So far all the period fillers I’ve seen have been black. The inclusion is pretty small so even being black it’ll probably blend in regardless. I’m going to be using tannic acid under aquafortis so there’s gonna be a good amount of black color to the stock. The cool thing is this can be represent a utilitarian gun that would have that kind of repair and feel good about it. I’m also thinking about scraping it so there a bit of contour left by the scraper hitting the grain. Not a ton but a hint of it but we will see. I will go where the project takes me ….. ah who am I kidding, I’ll probably glue in a patch lol.

 

[Texcl2]

I realized I have a practice stock with a bunch of inclusions and decided to practice on it doing a patch. One inclusion is pretty similar. So I’m beginning by scraping the area clean next will be chiseling out a mortise for the patch, if anyone has pointers let me know, I’ll post my progress…..

 

[Texcl2]

I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to match the grain direction on this area but oh well

 

[Eric Krewson]

Supperglue and sawdust makes a solid filler but you need to use very fine sawdust or it will look grainy. I over inletted a nose cap and refilled the area with whatever was on my bandsaw table and superglue, the result was UGLY by was hidden by the nose cap.

On this bow repair I used finer walnut dust but it had a little course osage dust in it which left the grainy pieces on top.

A few practice pieces are in order before you decide to use this method. I had a walnut TC stock that looked like someone had batted rocks with it. I steamed out most of the dents and filled the few remaining holes with fine sawdust from the stock and superglue, the end result was a few black looking lines that were barely noticeable.

 

[Texcl2]

Here’s some patch practice I tapered the hole and plug a bit so it would be tighter at the top, hopefully I was correct there? I could have fit it better but my wife wanted to go into town and I don’t want to make her mad, she lets me get kits no questions asked lol……

 

[James Kibler]

Just a tip... It's best to avoid straight lines and square corners if you want to hide a patch. Elliptical or football shaped patches often work well.

 

[Texcl2]

Gotcha, I’ll practice that, were the original patches typically elliptical?

 

[James Kibler]

Gotcha, I’ll practice that, were the original patches typically elliptical?

It's hard to know as a whole, but I don't think they were as concerned about making the patch invisible.

 

[Texcl2]

ok, that’s good as mine probably will stick out like a sore thumb lol. I knew this one on the wrist of my practice stock would since I couldn’t match the grain or color with the scraps I had but with finish I’d be able to blend it in to not look awful I think, I saw a gun (maybe Brooks?) had put about a hundred patches on while assembling and kind of liked it lol.….

 

[Texcl2]

First coat of darkened oil over it with a reddish brown stain under that, it looks ok. I wouldn’t have patched it if it was going on a gun , I’d probably fill it with something black and sand it, would have disappeared, none of the staining from the inclusion is visible at all, the biggest issue is the grain on the wrist is way different from the scrap, if I had a thicker scrap to work with I could have matching it better. Was fun to do though.