Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Butt Stock Repair

Finally got a chance to look into repairing the butt stock on a vintage Ithaca 37, 16ga. As received, the gun had had a recoil pad installed. Instead of using a #6 or #8 screws to attach the pad, #12 pr #14 screws were used (at least in the screw at the toe). The oversize screw split the toe off right thru the screw hole. The toe was reattached, albeit it poorly - misaligned and an excess of adhesive.

Last night I cut the toe of the stock to give a good mating surface for a new piece of wood. I cut enough of the stock away so that the joint between the stock and the piece to be added will be out of the way of the new screw hole for the butt plate. I also cut a wedge of walnut from an old shotgun stock that will be shaped to match the stock contours once attached.

Question is this - what adhesive would you recommend to join the stock and the piece to be added? Past woodworking experience suggests to me that a good carpenter's glue (yellow), combined with solid clamping and dry time will bond both pieces quite well, and potentially create a joint that is stronger than the woo around it. Also though of using an epoxy based adhesive.

Suggestions?

I would use epoxy, but the Tite? wood glue or Gorilla glues should also work if the screw isn't going to put stress on the joint. I don't know how much you have to work with, but perhaps dowling with the glue may be an option. I don't think that I would personally bother with that tho.

Titebond II works fine for this application and if you get a good fit on the joint and match the grain well, the joint will be mostly hidden. Just be sure to predrill a hole for the mounting screw before remounting the recoil pad so it doesn't put pressure on the grain and cause a new split...

That's my plan.

Did some digging in the supplies cabinet, and lo and behold, I did find a fresh bottle of Titebond II. I'll get it glued and clamped up tonight, and sanded up sometime over the weekend.

Keep in mind you can actually over clamp glue joints. If it is clamped so tight all the glue is squeezed out, you will lose the joint eventually. Clamp it firmly, but leave some glue in the joint with a little squeeze out.... but then you probably know all this so never mind if I'm out of line....

Titebond 3

Super Glue is the way to go.

Titebond will do you fine

Fiddled around with the stock repair a bit last night. Just wasn't happy with the way the grain matched up, so I relieved the stock a little more. Looking better now. Also spent some time making some wedges to attach to my clamps so that I can get even pressure, and also not have the pieces being spliced slip. In the end, I closed up the shop without getting the stock glued up - guess I'll have to hit it again tonight.

Give us a pic later

Best to be patient and take your time to get it right the first time. It is never fun to take them apart later and try to fix what you did the first time.... don't ask me how I know this....

Clamping that area is difficult to say the least. If you can get a good fit, some surgical tubing can be helpful in clamping it. Also, if it is moving after gluing and clamping, sometimes a dowel or even a couple brads standing up on the original stock with matching holes in the repair piece will hold it in place and keep it from moving after clamping and while the glue dries....

Bob

By no means is the stock finished, but the pics below show that splice I made on the toe of the stock. Need a little bit of filler right at the butt plate end of the stock on the seam.

Nice job.

very nice

Something I try to do if I get a crack like that in the stock or at a joint like that- cut a sliver of wood that is wedge shaped and long enough to fill the crack, Put a little bit of glue on the edge of it and drive it carefully into the crack as far as you can so ti completely fills the crack. Let the glue dry and scrape it back to the surface with a sharp chisel or cabinet scraper. If done right, you won't be able to tell where the glue joint is unless the wood isn't a good match...

Bob

Thanks Bob. I think I'll give you the a try.

You did a nice job matching the grain on the repair piece.
I have been ‘smithing for close to 50 years and have always used Acraglas for such repairs. It has never failed me. For a repair like this one that could experience a shear force, I would drill 3 or 4 1/8” holes into both the base piece and the add-on, roughly in line with each other to allow the epoxy to make its own dowels. This increases the shear strength of the repair greatly without having any visible pins or dowels.

Kp321,

I did put some twisted steel pins in the base and into the add-on piece.

You might have been better served using wood rather than steel pins. Probably won't make any difference.

As to that filler crack, slow setting clear epoxy will do it, but will leave a dark line. Or you could use a little brown dye in it for a closer match. From the pics I think it would just look like grain. Driving a wedge in there makes me a bit uneasy, but if successful with a good wood color match, should make it go away visibly, as scheister said.

Very nice matching job.

Finally got a chance to finish the stock. Pretty happy with the results. Use a stock restoration kit from StockDocUsa.com. Other than all of the initial sanding, the finish took less than a hour to do.