repairing 1" crack

[hortonstn]

i cannot believe this happened but a small crack in the lower side corner of the stock next to the butt plate made its appearance after the stock was stained,sealed and finished
i don't think a patch box will hide it, i did pre drill the lower hole in the butt plate
any ideas how to hide this other than epoxy it and refinish ( i know it will be seen..
thanks
looking for a miricale ( sorry for the spelling)
paul

[bgf]

How about a picture -- from your description it sound like the crack is near the toe, but I'm not sure.  Did it crack near the buttplate screw?  If you have a toeplate, maybe you can take it off and close up the crack with a screw (and some glue, epoxy, etc.) countersunk under the toeplate or something like that.  A hairline crack won't be that bad, although it'll always look worse to you than anyone else.

[huckfinn]

A photo would help.  Could you use some acra-glas and then an inlay.  That way you wouldn't have to refinish it.  Is the crack near the butt plate screw? 

[KLMoors]

Man, what a bummer. I think the idea about a screw that will be hidden under the toe plate is the solution. Be careful taking it apart, don't lose any slivers along the outer edges of the crack. If you're lucky, she might close up real nice. I'd carefully stain the outer edges and any slivers before gluing it back up.

[keweenaw]

 If it's a crack near the toe  or along the lower screw line you should be able to glue it without it being obvious. Put a bit of paste wax on the surface of the wood around where the crack is but don't get any into the crack. Take the buttplate off and drill one or more 1/16" holes right down the crack from under the buttplate.  Mix up a bit of Acraglas - the thin stuff, not the gel - and color it to the color of your stock.  Use a small syringe and a large bore (16 ga.) needle to inject the acraglas into the holes you drilled (or use a 1/16" drift or pin to force the acraglas into the hole to the point where some is coming to the surface of the stock along the length of the crack.  With carefully padded clamps going from the top to the bottom of your stock draw the crack closed.  Carefully wipe any epoxy off the surface of your stock.  The wax you put on will keep it from sticking.  If you do this carefully your crack will go away.  No need for screws or toe plates.  The trick is to get lots of epoxy into that crack.  You'll probably need to make a tapered wedge to use along the toe when clamping so that the bottom of the wedge is parallel to the top of the stock.  You can prevent clamp damage to the top of the stock by putting the BP back on, leaving out the lower screw, so the clamp can be on the top extension rather than on the wood there - wax the inside of the BP so the epoxy won't stick to it.  I would use a thick piece of leather between the wedge and the stock on the bottom for a pad.  Make sure you have a big enough pilot hole for the lower stock screw before you put it back in - after the epoxy has set for at least 24 hours.

I've repaired many cracks in stocks this way for customers, including some stocks that the customer thought were ruined.  When done carefully the repair is invisible.

Tom

[hortonstn]

can't get a pik to post, the crack is on the side  of the toe a toe plate won't help
thanks again

[keweenaw]

It's pretty clear from the photos you emailed me that the crack is along the line of the lower butt plate screw.  I should be a fairly easy fix using the method I described.  Even though you drilled a pilot hole, the grain of the wood was probably exactly along the line of the screw hole and because the shank of the screw is considerably larger than the pilot hole the resulting stress caused the crack.  After you get it glued shut relieve the screw hole with a drill bit close to the size of the screw shank for the length of the shank.  On jobs like this I usually make sure that I can draw the crack shut with the clamp before I go to the trouble of gluing it.  If cracks are pretty open I sometime close the crack with the clamp before I drill the small hole to inject the glue just to make sure that no shavings from the drill end up in the crack.  Of course you take the clamp off and allow the crack to open up before you force the glue in.  Good Luck!

Tom

[hortonstn]

thank you sir, i will try it
paul