doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - J.P. Sauer - Johannes Mitschke project

I am starting up a new SxS redo project. J.P. Sauer hammer gun #87003 12b. This is a total project gun. As acquired some years back the stock had been sanded to remove all checkering and leave locks and grip cap proud. Forend wood does not appear to be original and is smooth without checkering. Release fits well and is not proud. Barrels appear to have been cut by +0.5". Right barrel measures +0.727 and left +0.724. This Sauer was produced for Johannes Mitschke in Riga, Latvia. I have added a few photos for identification. My goal is to correct the proud metal by deepening the inletting and cutting new checking in a Sauer pattern of the period. If you have a Sauer hammer gun of this period and could post a couple of photos of the checkering pattern I would appreciate it.

I would date this 1891 - 1912 based on proof stamps and no date code. Also no eagle nitro stamp.














Purchased off Gunbroker years ago for very little money. It has been sitting in the safe for the past twenty years. Decided to put it back into shooting condition. Good thing I like projects. Take it apart and look what I find...

No less than five splits in the stock head...(six, found another as I cleaned oil from the head)



Forend wood not original...





Project gun. I will get it ready for next year woodcock season. Close and seal all splits, refit wood to metal, replace checkering and refinish with a oil/varnish.

On that one , if I couldn't open the cracks wide enough to get glue into them and be satisfied that if was sufficient to hold,,I'd cut out the individual cracks a bit to allow it.
I sometimes use a coping saw if the crack is in a position so the sawing does not cut into any other wood or cut into the edge of inletting.

Here I'd use Dental Burrs to route out the cracks with the use of a Dremel (!! Oh Dear!)

Simple straight shanked small dia burrs with some length to them are great for cutting along the crack.
They are aggressive, cut clean and leave a cut no wider than the burr itself , if that is what you want.

You can cut away wood in odd shapes if needed and around corners , do undercuts, ect.

Each of those cracks can be routed along the crack lines and even then a bit deeper at the end of the crack line by simply tipping the bit and digging deeper under the wood.
If you want to include small staple repairs at the head, those relief features needed for the staple in the wood are also quickly cut out
cleanly with the same burr while you're at it.

When ready, glue up the cracks with sufficient glue to fill the small voids & add the staple(s) and replace the metal while the glue cures.
Lightly clamp into position so the wood can be set in the proper position.
With the cracks routed out and the wood relieved, the wood can often be pushed and pulled out of shape somewhat. Sometimes that's an advantage to correct small issues. But you don't want to overdo it. Not having the metal back in place when regluing the cracks can often leave you with quite a different inlet when cured than what you may expect to see.

Here's some Burrs I'm refering too. Not necessarily the only type. Just representative of the type I use. They come in all sorts of cutting head styles. I find this style easy to use when routing out cracks from the side of a SxS stock such as this. Called a 'cylinder cutting head' style.
Lots of them available on Ebay and other places on the Web and much less expensive than these..!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Meisinge...tner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101004420

I have seen a boxlock that had the cheeks built up with matching wood.
After staining as needed, it was almost impossible to see.... until you knew.
Seems like a workable method.

After considering the possible alternatives I have decided that I will go with adding veneer to rebuild the wood in the wrist. These photos show the four patterns I have created. The checkering pattern will flow right up to the border created by the veneer. I will transfer these patterns to the veneer strips. No experience on my end so if you have advice please help out. Pre-glued or plain? Steam to bend to form?

Top and side above sidelocks:


Bottom and below sidelocks:

You can lightly 'score' the back side of the pieces of veneer and that will allow them to bend more easily around the wrist shape of the stock (and other features too).

Don't go too deep or the score mark(s) will show on the outside when you start trimming it back down.
The closer the score marks are together the closer arc the venier can bend w/o breaking.
Go both ways (criss cross) and the stuff can cover some convex surfaces but not nearly as well as the commercial 3D-Veneer thats made already cross cut on the backside.
The commercial stuff is hard to find and $$.

I wouldn't even use the 300* activated glue that's on the pre-glue on the veneer. Just fit the pieces and use an epoxy or even a simple wood glue is all.
The epoxy might be better as there usually some slight voids to fill in under the wrap around method on an old surface such as a gun stock.
23weyth6Pre-glued veneer does work well on perfectly flat surfaces prepared as such.
If there's a void under the thin veneer (unsupported) there's a very good chance of pushing through it in finishing or even later handling. Then you have another 'fix-it' project within your fix-it project.

Using epoxy to build the surface works well. Then you have to seal it. plain Shellac works . Then use Earth colors to fake the wood grain and match it in. Then 'fix' your art work before the final finish over all. I use a spray enamel very light 'fix' coat over the colored up fake wood. Carefully sand that a bit. Then finish the whole stock.

LetFly,
Your problem is going to be "begging off", when every body wants you to do this for their guns.
Mike

How much use can this have before it delaminates.i think it's a good project and you are really ambitious good luck .

Frame carefully let into new wood on stock wrist. Next steps include stain to match original stock then cut new checkering.

Letfly,
Understand, I am neither a stockmaker or "checkerer", but I think the tool you are looking for to straighten lines is a long single line cutter called a "Joiner" or "Jointer".
Mike

For those following along on this project I have progress to report. I have successfully added the veneering to bring the wood up to the proper height to remove any proud metal. I have refinished all the wood including the veneer. I checkered both the forend (22 lpi) and stock wrist (18 lpi) to incorporate the veneer. The veneer is hard sealed after finishing with epoxy to prevent delamination from handling. I have been working on this project on and off for almost two years. These photos show my progress to date. At this point I will start on rehabilitation of the screw heads. Look at the final photo for an example of the abuse to be corrected. I have received a lot a great support and help from those interested on this forum. Thanks. If you have experience with redoing screw heads I will appreciate any advice.

Letfly, that’s a beautiful firearm! I admire the work you are doing. The repairs are unnoticeable to me. The color of the wood is beautiful. Please keep the photos and updates coming.