Making ‘Invisible’ Repairs In a Broken Stock

From time to time, I get a request from a good customer to make anew stock to replace an old one that has broken. I follow the same drill each and every time I get such a request. Before I even discuss making anew custom stock, I tell the customer to let me see the broken stock in order to determine if it’s repairable. This is especially important if the stock is made of a highly figured expensive hardwood. Making an invisible (or nearly invisible) repair in a broken stock is not as easy as it might seem.

A lot of work and craft goes into the process, and it’s difficult to charge enough for the time it takes. Consequently, I tend to do repair work only for repeat customers. Once I get the stock in my hands, I examine it carefully to determine if indeed it is repairable.

Typically, the questions I ask myself are: 1) Is it a clean break, rather than a stock that has been severely splintered? 2) Is there wood missing at the break point, and if there is, is it only a minor amount of missing wood? 3) What cartridge is the gun chambered for, and after mending, will it hold up? (This is especially important with Magnums.) And finally, 4) How did the break occur?

I ask the last question mostly out of curiosity, but also to determine if the stock is likely to break again at the repair point. Actually, I’ve uncovered some interesting anecdotes over the years with this question. For example, the Rolling Block stock shown in the photos here was broken during a burglary. The customer told me his At this point, the break can be clearly seen in the center of the photograph. Once the rough sanding is complete, the break will be hard to spot. home was burgled and trashed.

The Rolling Block in question was smashed until the stock broke at the wrist. It was indeed a sad story as the home was sprayed with catsup, mustard, and other foods. Clearly a case of pure meanness. But I digress…. In the case of this stock, I looked it over carefully and it didn’t seem to present a problem with the first three questions listed above. Besides, the Roller was rebarreled to 22 LR, and it’s rare to see one in that cartridge. I deemed it a worthy project and took it on.

While it was of high quality, the Rolling Block stock was not checkered. And I always consider a stock to be unfinished if it is not checkered. Thus, after ascertaining the mend would be practically invisible after checkering, I explained the procedure and the cost to the client and he gave me the go-ahead. There was a small triangular piece of wood missing on the upper right portion of the

wrist adjacent to the tang, which I determined I could also repair. I then cleaned up the break to be certain that no small splinters of wood were left to affect the fit of the two pieces. If done correctly, the parts should fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. My next challenge was to figure out how to hold the two parts of the stock together after applying the adhesive. The Rolling Block does not have a stock bolt which would have worked perfectly, so I rigged up a system using an old bicycle inner tube.

The trick is to tightly wrap the stock end for end without disturbing the fit of the broken parts. Once I figured that out, it was time to go to work. There are a number of modern glues on the market today that will produce strong bonds in wood. Some cabinetmaker’s glues, in fact, are so strong that the wood will break elsewhere rather than where the original break occurred. But cabinetmaker’s glue won’t fill gaps; to be effective, it requires joints that are clean and tight.

I ruled them out, as the joint in ques- This was a two-man job. tion was quite irregular. For that reason, I chose an epoxy—Brownells Acraglas—for this job. Acraglas will fill in any voids, and once it’s cured, it’s as strong or stronger than the wood surrounding the break. I mixed up a batch of Acraglas gel (1:1 epoxy), added a bit of brown dye, and liberally spread the epoxy on both surfaces. After affixing the inner tube, I set the stock aside overnight.

Since this break was virtually perpendicular to the long axis of the barreled action, I simply set the rifle down on the butt using the weight of the rifle itself to hold things together. (The action was fitted with a bull barrel weighing in the neighborhood of 12 pounds.) The next day I unwrapped the inner tube to take a look, and I must admit that I could have done a better job of wiping away the excess epoxy that oozed from the repair.

That excess had to be sanded away before I could determine the degree of success of my work. Once it was sanded, I was pleased. I knew that the repair would be invisible after refinishing and checkering the stock. While in the process of repairing the Rolling Block, I received a second broken stock to repair. This one was a C. Sharps reproduction Winchester M1885 High Wall. The customer told (continued on page 21)

me that the stock was sent to a stockmaker for fitting, and when it was returned in the mail it was broken in two. This was clearly a case of inadequate packaging. This stock met all of the aforementioned criteria and I took photos of the repair to show the clamping that I used. This stock, unlike the Roller’s stock, was broken transversely, therefore requiring a different clamping technique. There are no set rules for these repairs; you simply work with what you have.

The High Wall stock was prepared with the action in place, therefore a liberal amount of release agent was applied to all metal surfaces to ease disassembly after the epoxy cured. The Rolling Block stock was refinished in the usual manner and, after allowing the finish to fully cure, the stock was checkered. The customer was pleased with the results, as the break is nearly invisible. The High Wall stock is now completely finished and this break is also virtually invisible.

I am still in the process of checkering the stock. As I mentioned at the outset, mending a broken stock might seem easier than it really is. But if you use my four questions as a guide to what is repairable, you can be reasonably sure of success. And what greater pleasure could there be than saving a truly beautiful piece of wood? ■