AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Gun Building => Topic started by: mountainman on March 15, 2020, 07:09:46 AM
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I fastened a silver thumpiece with silver nails ( my second one that I have installed ) so not much experience with them,
And it turned out okay when I permantly installed them, except there was 2 nails that I made out of silver wire, when I peened the head of the nail they didn't quite fill the gap, I was going to engrave the border so I went through the nail head on the first one which then it didn't make it noticeable, but then when I got to the second one as I was engraving through the nail head, half the head broke off, :P well it wasn't what i planned, didn't like the appearance of it.
I'm sure there is a way to fix that? Just trying to figure out the option. Any ideas? What didn't help matters I put a little dab of glue in the nail hole ( beings it was predrilled ). One thought I had was to try to drill the nail out, maybe I can at least get the top part out, and then drive another nail down in it, and then peen in the gap again, but maybe part of the original nail might still be in it, didn't know how well that would hold?
So there you have it, Any thoughts or ideas that what would work? Did this ever happen to any other gunbuilders? And if so, how did you correct it? Or??
Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
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Sounds like period character to me. Original work that I’ve seen has oopsies like that I’ve observed. I can’t see many ways to pull a inlay nail that was filed flush with out making a mess. If your glue was epoxy perhaps a fine soldering iron would supply enough localized heat to break the bond. Still the risk I’m my mind could be higher than the grr factor of the imperfection. We tend to only see the flaws in our own work. BJH
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I'd leave it alone. So, it's not perfect. Oh well. Keep moving forward.
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I’ve put a dab of super glue on the countersink when setting the pin, gives enough hold so head won’t pull off when filing. As mentioned, originals showed signs of this issue, consider it as part of authenticity to your build.
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Pull the entire inlay and put in a little bit larger one to cover any damage to the inlet.
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Hey thanks all for your response! I got the problem straightened out. Thanks to BJH's idea, did a little experimenting with some scrap pieces.
So I had everything prepared by having a wet cloth made the wood wet around the inlay, and held the cloth around it, and then I heated it up, and put a little dab of silver solder on it, and it worked out just great. By the time I thought there was too much heat, I decided I'm going to cool it down with a wet cloth, just as I came down the solder melted and I cooled it down immediately, and then I cleaned it up and looked great. Can't really say I can recommend that idea, wouldn't want to be responsible for anything going wrong. Have a great one! Thanks.