Fixing Dings in a wood stock

[OldCooT]

Fixing Dings in a wood stock

Being a cabinet maker and carpenter for 40 years, here is a tidbit on knowledge.

Here is a old trick in lifting light dings in wood stocks.

First, strip the stock removing the oil or laquered finish from the stock.

Keep inside a Dehumidified area to further dry out the wood for a few weeks.

If the ding is @ 1/32" deep, then take a eye dropper and fill the ding with water, being careful not to overfill the ding.

If the ding is deeper, it will only raise the wood a little, but it will still be there, but not as much.
1/16 th' deep , the cells of the wood may be damaged but not crushed. Deep dings probably contain damaged wood.
This is a slow and tedious effort, doesn't work all the time due to the quality of preparation, damage to the wood and attention given the project.

Slow and long term attention works the best,.. TLC.

[KABAR2]

I have been able to lift some of the deeper dings with steam, but you have to be careful or you can do more harm than good! It's good to practice on a beater stock you don't care about first, make sure its the same type of wood as the one you intend to restore, different woods don't always behave the same, and a new stock will behave differently from a 100 or 150 year old stock.

Allen <><

[dutigaf]

yeah ive done the iron on a wet cloth on stocks before.... but always wound up refinishing them anyway.. no thats not my strong point. heh heh.

[Kali Komrade]

Yeah I've had some real beaters especially old spanish mauser stocks and I would use a squirt bottle with distilled water untill the area I was working on was saturated and then use the steam iron and then dry iron... I've also heard of guys just soaking the stocks and then drying them in the oven slowly and then steel wooling repeating the process untill they were happy with it...

[Dan Wilson]

I've also heard of guys just soaking the stocks and then drying them in the oven slowly and ...

That is one that I would NOT recommend, most wood reacts really badly to drying too quickly. By quickly I mean leaning against the wall in you shop for some woods!
Some, like European Beech, will split in a big way if you have it soaked and then go from wet to the interior of your house without an intermediate stage like wrapping it in damp washcloths. I am not afraid of using water on many woods, but drying the wet wood is different between species.

I learned about the European Beech by having a Garand Stock split from front to back, it ended up in the fireplace keeping the cats warm :banghead:

Dan

[OldCooT]

yeah ive done the iron on a wet cloth on stocks before.... but always wound up refinishing them anyway.. no thats not my strong point. heh heh.


I don't use this method as it raises more wood outside the ding,. and if you decide to use steel wool or lightly sand before refinishing.. you can wind up with a depression when it is re-oiled/finished, you're taking a risk, especially if it is a valued piece.

[dutigaf]

coot,

didnt say i was good at it. LOL

valued piece???? i value all my stuff, but im a shooter not a "holder".

got em to shoot!! so they are never gonna be perfect.

now days, ive just decided to let them have the "character marks" for almost everything.


if it needs a new stock or set of wood grips, i'll have one of you guys make them for me!!

sound fair?

[OldCooT]

Ohh ,. I know what you mean,.. that VZ 24 I got is a mess,. and I ain't touching it,. "Character marks" like you said,.. the parts are hard to find for a early model. I ain't sporterising it.. but I would like to scope it just to help my eyes,.. wearing bifocals,.. I can't keep the sight on the sighta and target at the same time,

but a few others will be worth it.

Happy New Years, Bro.. and be safe about it.