Poor inletting job

[capt jack]

Some years ago , I picked up a long rifle , at a local gun shop, for a song . It appears to be a precarved stock , with an assemble of odd parts .The original builder did some very ornate carving to the wood that looks good , and his shapeing was good , but I think he used a 1/2" screwdriver for the inletting . There are some large {1/16"} chip-outs around the patchbox , thimbles,etc' .

The stock is very plain maple . How can I "fill" these gaps , and then stain the wood , with out getting a "painted " look . I have always used alcohol stains on figured wood , but this wood has no figure at all .
Just trying to save the old girl , instead of a parts pile .

 

[BrownBear]

The question for me is always how well will any filler take the stain used on the wood. If you can get a good match, repairs can be virtually undetectable. Lots of TLC, but a friend long ago was a master at this. He was doing mostly chips and dings in Winchester stocks, matching and "aging" patches to match old dark walnut, then refinishing. He was so good at it I NEVER bought a Winnie from him. His primary filler was plain old Wood Dough, which he painstakingly stained to match the walnut. Then he would use a drafting pen and waterproof ink to draw in grain. With a finish over it, you simply couldn't find his work.

Hope those insights help. I'd be testing your stains against patching materials to see which combo was compatible. Not sure of the process, but I've seen lots of comments and a few examples of "false figure" being added to plain stocks today and on original rifles. I'm betting that if you could make the process work for you, it would take care of your concerns about staining while also having the potential to help camo your patch jobs.

Keep us posted. Sounds like an interesting and worthwhile project!

 

[mazo kid]

Sometimes a mix of thinned wood glue and sanding dust from the same type of wood can be used for filling small defects. Try it out on a scrap piece of wood to to see how it will look, sanding it down, finishing, etc..

 

[Dave K]

Try to find matching wood and make slivers of wood to glue in. I hear many times to use a mixture of sawdust and glue, but for me it looks like I used a mixture of sawdust a glue and the poor inletting looked better than the glob of shlop. The sawdust thing has no straight lines or curved lines like real wood does. It just looks like you put a finish over dirty wood.The sawdust takes stain or finish differently than the other wood and will be a very dark area, where the sawdust is. Use a stainable glue and glue in the slivers of wood, refit, refinish and good luck.JMHO :surrender:

 

[RJR]

I've used pieces of tooth pick glued into areas that I've screwed up. It has worked quite well for me. Takes the stain well and is easy to work with. Also real cheap and readily available.

Rick

 

[J.D.]

Like others, I don't think that fillers look quite right. One good solution is to plane thin shavings off of a compatible wood. Stain 'em, and glue in place using enough pressure to compress the shaving into the parent wood to eliminate an apparent glue line.

Several layers of stained shavings can be glued together under pressure and inlet into place, then the parts inlet into the new wood.

When properly done, the repair looks like the parent wood.

 

[brottenberger]

Be careful of using wood glue and shaving/saw dust as most wood glues will not take stain after they are dry - the glue is not porous. Find a Rockler or Woodcraft store or something of the like. There are some very good wood fillers that are tinted to match woods and these generally will accept stain.

 

[Headhunter]

Doc,

Go to the Gettin Place and pick you up some Devcon two part Clear Epoxy. Mix it per directions and bed the part you want to fill. DO NOT forget to use a release agent like Pam or Skillet spray. Let the Devcon cure for at least an hour then you can remove your piece of iron and file and shape the Devcon to the wood.

Make sure you stain inside the chip before you bed your part. When you are done, the Clear Devcon will be transparent and will look suprisingly good.

Works great.

HH

 

[Zoar]

I used to compete with Devcon and I was an epoxy formulator for 13 years. The DEVCON clear is essentially just plain ole unfilled epoxy that you can obtain anywhere like Home Depot / Hardware store at a fraction of the price of Devcon. Plus for bedding I am not a fan of clear UNFILLED epoxy for bedding. Fillers such as mica and novacite or other minerals or short fibers help to make the bedding compound much stronger. Just about any any filled epoxy will work as bedding compound. However I thought the problem was poor inletting not bedding. As some others have posted to fix up inletting booboo's you need a filler that will accept stain well. Any good wood shop or even an old time hardware store should be able to help you find a stainable filler to repair those ragged edges of a less than perfect inlet job.

Anyway just my two pennies worth. One of my other competitors was a company by the name of Belzona. Their EPOXY they sold as Metal Restortaiuon Compound and it sold for anywhere from $500 to $1400 a GALLON. Of Course they sold it "by KILO", so you did not really know how much by volume you were getting. I cam assure you it cost them about $12 to make a gallon of that stuff. Talk about highway robbery. Anyway, for inletting booboo's getting a stain to MATCH the repair is the major concern. Good LUCK!

 

[BrownBear]

As some others have posted to fix up inletting booboo's you need a filler that will accept stain well. Any good wood shop or even an old time hardware store should be able to help you find a stainable filler to repair those ragged edges of a less than perfect inlet job.

Anyway, for inletting booboo's getting a stain to MATCH the repair is the major concern.

I mentioned before the friend who did this so convincingly, even undetectably, with plain old Wood Dough. But I forgot to mention the "finishing touch" that really pulled it altogether.

Before staining and finishing, he used a fine point pen and dark brown or black waterproof ink to draw in "grain." You wouldn't believe the end product.

 

[oldarmy]

If it doesn't affect the function of the rifle.
I would just leave it as it is.
Is is after all handmade.
We are all so spoiled and want everything to be so "perfect"JMHO
Admire the carving and overlook the flaws :v