doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stock Question

Stock on Westley Richards boxlock needs a refinish; only issue I see so far is the metal is proud to the wood. I once heard a theory of putting the head of the stock in hot (possibly very hot) water to expand a little. I am wondering if any of the experienced stock guys could shed some light on this. Thank you.

Water would just evaporate sooner or later and the stock would shrink. In my unschooled opinion.

Works for furniture repairs. Might be too much oil in the wood to work on a stock.

If it is just the cheeks that need to expand, you might try the old trick of using a hot iron over a piece of wet cloth to swell the wood with steam. Treat the stock like a big ding that needs to be steamed out.

Well, my grandfather's men would toss the horse wagon wheels into the duckpond to swell the spokes into the rim and tighten everything up. Common practice in those days. We had a wheelright in the Essex village where I was born, went to school with his boy. After school we would watch him build and fix wooded wagon wheels
Marvellous to watch him fit the iron rim and I can see why it was called a spoke-shave.

Wood can swell quite a bit cross grain, but not so much so length wise.

I've restored a couple of Chris Craft runabouts. After years of being in the dry Colorado climate you could see through the gap's in the planks. I would have to soak the boats hanging from a hoist in the water for a week or so and they would swell back to being water tight again.

Here's some thing I've thought of trying on a stock head that has that the metal proud of the wood. First get all of the oil out of the wood. Then soak the stock head in water until it's just proud of the wood and then wick superglue into the end grain of the head and see if that wouldn't keep the wood expanded when it dries.

Just an idea. I've never tried it.

Don't think the cyanoacrylate would bond or cure if the wood is still damp. There is another product that should work, though. Simpson (the company that makes construction hardware and fasteners) has a line of epoxy injection products for repairing and bonding cracked concrete. Don't dismiss this idea yet. The product is marketed as the Crack-Pack Injection System (or something like that), and is available in several viscosities. These are designed to bond to damp or wet concrete and will cure in the presence of moisture. I have tried it on a couple of architectural projects and it seems to work as advertised. One of the products is very thin, probably like water, and should wick into the wood's end grain if it is not too wet.

Having said that, I still prefer the steaming method because the wood does not shrink back down after it has been steamed, and you can still use cyanoacrylate after the steaming.

dogon, of course it would be the end grain that I would be working with; I don't want it to swell length-wise. I think I would wait until the wood thoroughly dries before sealing with anything. If I used steam, any suggestions on generating enough steam, and concentrating it to the head of the stock?
Many thanks for the input so far!

I have had good luck steaming out dents by using a very damp/wet cloth and a discarded clothing steam iron on the steam or cotton setting.

Just lay a damp cloth over the wood and apply the iron. The steam will be driven into the wood fibers as it develops in the cloth. Work slowly and don't try to do too much at one time. You can always go back and hit it again later.

You can try steaming the wood to try and bring it out, but I don't see you being able to get it out very far. Worth a try though.