Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Stainable Wood Filler?

What would be the best wood filler or wood putty that would both take stain and a finish? This is for a stock repair. Thanks, John.

Real wood, seriously. If you're filling a crack, just die your epoxy black or brown. But if you have a larger area to fill, get a piece of the same species and shade of wood, orient the grain the same, and glue it in place.

No putty filler is suitable for stock repair, and it'll stick out like a sore thumb.

Or take some sanding dust from similar wood and add it to your filler.

I would have to see the damage before making a intelligent suggestion, but I would not use wood filler such as your referring to on a gun stock...

However,If the crack or hole is small then I mixed up a batch of glass and get some sanding dust from the stock in question and mix it up and then fill with that..but it only works well on small repairs..On a major repair, you can't match it anyway so you might as well just fill it with glass bedding compound and try to match the color of the stock with the included dye.

In most cases that are not severe you can sweat out the hole with a wet towel and hot iron lightly sanding it level between applications..I have patched up some pretty bad stuff that way as long as its an indention form a blow, then the wood is still there, its just compressed and will pop back out.

Thanks for the advice. What epoxy would you guys reccomend? I believe epoxy and some of the wood sanded from the stock sounds like the best option. John.

Maybe a picture would help??? Some repairs are best not done... Some repairs are best done by a particular method over another...

458Lott has it right when he says to color the epoxy. Sanding dust will be darker than the wood and will seldom be anything close to invisible. A good match with similar wood can be very hard to pick out when done right...

OK here is what I'm up against. I've got a factory stock that someone relieved some wood in the barrel channel from the fore end tip back about 5-6". I want to get the barrel to have a good wood to metal fit and as it is, there's probably about 1/16" clearence on each side. My fix doesn't have to look perfect because I don't think it would be that noticeble anyway. Any other thoughts? Thanks, John.

Yes.

Find a place on your stock (barrel channel) and sand it with fine grit sand paper.

Save the dust and mix it in with Acra Glass or epoxy.

Pour mix in the barrel channel.

Always try for a mix a little lighter color than the existing finished wood.

Sometimes it is better to use a lighter colored piece of donor wood for the sawdust.

After your mix hardens lightly sand if/as needed.
Apply a light cat of finish on the repaired area and you are good to go.

I must be missing something. The idea of mixing sawdust into a base like Acraglas seems appealing, but when I have tried it, it always ends up darker than the surrounding wood. The problem seems to be that the sawdust absorbs the liquid, turning the mixture dark, but it never lightens when hard. The sawdust acts like end grain. It looks like it's permanently wet. Keep in mind that we're talking about walnut here.

Paul

Paul
You are right...
art

paul is exactly right.

If all you're doing is filling in and around the channel, then some properly mixed acraglass will do just fine.

It wasn't my intent to start an argument, but I've always wondered about this.

So is the advice to make a matching repair with sawdust from the parent piece or a similar wood source an old wives' (or old gunsmiths') tale that keeps getting repeated?

To the OQ, is there a better way? 30Gibbs seemed to touch on this by suggesting sawdust from a lighter piece of wood.

Paul

There is a way to not end up with dark epoxy-based homemade filler. Thicken the epoxy with colloidal silica first. Since it's white, you'll end up with a milky colored paste. Then add your sanding dust (the finer the better) until you achieve the tint you're looking for. Start out with tiny amounts of dust as a little bit goes a loooong way toward changing the color.

Fillers are an el-cheapo way of doing stock repairs. I resort to them only when time/customer constraints dictate it. Solid wood "dutchman's" are a better, classier approach. Done properly with matching wood and exacting (patient) fitting they are harder to spot than any repair done with filler.

For simply bedding a barrel channel, I would think you'd just want to die your epoxy to a similar color and bed away. No sawdust or fillers of any kind.

I know this is a really old thread, but I am in the same boat. A stock I purchased has a slightly larger profile

Not many factory stocks are worth the headache of proper repair... epoxy dyed properly can be done quickly and easily. It will not really look good. Good takes far more time than a factory stock is worth...

It's this area in the photo below that's too wide. Any thoughts?

Because it is just laminates it is an easy fix. Get some thin strips of birch, they need be no wider than 1/4" and as thick as the stock laminations. Carefully cut out an area big enough to do your repair.

Cut out the laminates down to the glue lines and stagger the cuts so not all your new laminations end at the same place.

Glue them in place carefully and when your glue has cured inlet your barrel per normal methods.

This is a pretty easy fix.

what glue do you suggest?

Epoxy would be my first choice and I would dye it dark, dark brown.