So I will reset the pin to its correct position then glue a piece of wood internally to this area then hopefully this will in turn raise this area of wood to near the correct height
Also have covered the action with electrical insulation tape at the metal to wood boundaries, this has two effects firstly it stops the abrasive paper from removing or marking what is left of the action’s blued finish. Also by only finishing the woods surface to the level of the tape which is 2 thousands of an inch thick the wood will be proud of the metal by this amount to further improve the look of the guns wood to metal fit.
019
After improving the stock and forend wood to metal fit in places and adjusting the stocks line at the head area also making some small adjustments to the forend I will now fit the silver oval There are a few things I would like to say about this because over the years I seem to have fitted quite a number of replacement silver ovals on old guns that had been removed which has made me think the only valuable item left on an old gun in the not so dim and distant past was that silver oval so people removed them. Now it is possible to purchase silver ovals from parts suppliers at an exorbitant cost, so many years ago I came up with the idea to use Victorian ‘Silver Shillings’ because they are approximately the correct size with a high Silver content and even today their cost is just a couple of pounds for a heavily used example that coin collectors would not want.
Now as they are not classed as legal tender here in Brit land you can use them as you see fit so I make the coin oval then shape to the stocks profile but always having the tails side showing. My reasoning is that I just do not want to deface the head of Queen Victoria silly though it may sound she was still alive when most of the guns I have used her shilling coin as a replacement oval where made when she was still living. Also may be one day in the future some gunsmith may have to replace a stock and wont it be a talking point to find a Brit Victorian shilling rather than the standard tailor made Silver oval let in the guns stock.
The final thing to be fitted before I re-finish the stock is the recoil pad though one of the original screw holes needs plugging as the new pad fixing centres are quite different.
Also I will put two layers of electrical insulation tape to that part of the stock that butts up to the new recoil pad to act as a stop indicator when removing the pads excess overhang using a coarse abrasive belt on the linisher.
In removing the greater part of the pads excess now is not a good time to catch the wood with a coarse belt making deep abrasive score lines in the wood. I now recon between the values of the silver coin and a new recoil pad I have at least doubled the value of the gun and my reckoning puts it all of Ł10 give or take and as we say over here “many a true word is said in jest”
