refinishing stock without removing furniture?

[William Joy]

I bought a flintlock from a friend of mine. Once it was a nice custom rifle with very nice figured wood. However heavy hunting took it's toll on the wood. Has a 3 inch lengh wise crack in the fore stock starting approx 1inch before the trigger guard towards entry timble and a lot of rub marks and loss of colour and finish around the forestock and grip. Origionally it was "stained" with aqua fortis and then true oil finished. The furniture is in the white. The big problem is that triggerguard, buttplate, ram rod timbles (3) and 2 inlays are epoxied in!! How would you go about it??

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

In a word, HEAT.



Good Luck.

 

[William Joy]

Heat it is..... figured there is no shortcut....

Why using epoxy to glue the furniture in is beyond me.....

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

I would use a soldering iron held to the furniture with steady upwards pressure, the heat should soften the epoxy enough to lift the parts out.

I would be surprised if you are able to salvage this project but I applaud your efforts and would like to see or hear the results.

Again Good Luck

 

[pichou]

I would use a soldering iron held to the furniture with steady upwards pressure, the heat should soften the epoxy enough to lift the parts out.

I would be surprised if you are able to salvage this project but I applaud your efforts and would like to see or hear the results.

Again Good Luck

Ditto. It won't take a whole lot of heat to soften epoxy. Now, if it is JB Weld, you are up $ewer Creek. :haha:

Oh, yeah, if you use something to pry with, it will mark the wood. Tape a wood shim or scrap to pry against, and keep in mind the amount of pressure that will make the brass snap.