Presumably firewood

[alex e.]

I had no expectations for this piece  of wood.
I routed the barrel out and drilled the rr channel.
I took the top off with the bandsaw, and behold 3 nails.
I saw  a few flakes of metal on the barrel channel  and thought  my old router was going bad guess not.
I assume a smart person would be burning  it...
The frugal side of me want to save it. I already replaced  a portion of the butt,aka Rich Pierce.
Th last stock for this barrel someone  buggered up the rr hole bigtime (not me).
This gun is not meant to be.

[Stophel]

pull the iron pieces out and fit bits of wood in and make it look like knots.  No fuss, no muss.  Ok, maybe a little fuss, but still...

[alex e.]

pull the iron pieces out and fit bits of wood in and make it look like knots.  No fuss, no muss.  Ok, maybe a little fuss, but still...

So I'm not crazy  to continue??

[rich pierce]

pull the iron pieces out and fit bits of wood in and make it look like knots.  No fuss, no muss.  Ok, maybe a little fuss, but still...

So I'm not crazy  to continue??

There’s a little secret we don’t talk about much. We are all crazy.

[Top Jaw]

I often like the challenge of trying to save something. Sometimes it works out.  But sometimes that can be a trap and take me down a road where I ended up with a very noticeable and labor intensive repair.  Or worse yet,  later I had to throw in the towel after I had invested a whole lot more time. So my current policy is (especially on a project like a rifle that your spending some time on) unless your piece of wood has outstanding grain worthy of keeping for some special purpose, I would probably look for another piece and start again if I hit something like this.  My 2 cents. 

[Stophel]

Well, the top nail looks like it would definitely show when the fore end is shaped down, but I can't tell about the lower two.  I don't know what direction the metal is running, so I don't know where or if it will be really exposed to the outside.  The little spots of exposed metal right up next to the barrel are easy to patch, assuming you can get the metal bits out.

[Randall Steffy]

So, are you going for perfection or is a bit of character and a back story OK?

[alex e.]

So, are you going for perfection or is a bit of character and a back story OK?

If it gets done, lots of character.
It started as a French marine musket, will probably  end up as a low end militia musket..
The middle nail is right at the entry pipe.
Two roof nails and part of a common nail.
A patch or two. and gratuitous use of bedding  compound in the barrel channel will.polish this #$@*....
I've seen worse restorations..

[Gaeckle]

I would pull the nails, fill the void with wood peg, make the gun and tell all that you made a silk purse from a sow's ear. Another version: pull the nails, fill some voids, make the gun, make a repair, age the piece and craft a story around it as would Eric K. Just a thought or two.

[Lucky R A]

Darn Alex, you are going to have to stop making stocks out of used skids.  Come on up I can probably scrounge up a stocks that you don' have to patch up to work on.  Gov. Wolf said you can move about now that you are you are in the yellow zone. 
Ron

[FALout]

Did you see Mike Brooks post on his latest build?  Stock so full of worm holes...., yet he plugged them and built a really great looking rifle.  Do as these guys have suggested and move on, there are better reasons to use a stock for firewood.

[Craig Wilcox]

Alex, welcome to the asylum!  We are all inmates in one for or another - thinking and doing things relative to over 200 years ago, and enjoying ourselves at it.

You will come across more ways to fix little annoyances like those nails.  But don't use a plug - you will be stuck with endgrain showing in a neat little circle.

Go ahead, after removing the nail bits, and make a little rectangular hole where the nail hole is - and use titebond or some other GOOD wood glue, glue in a little rectangular plug to fit the chiseled hole that you made.  You can, if you wish, stain the plug - but make the grain of the woods match.  You will have to look mighty hard to see what and where.

The only cure for our mental disease is to start building another ML!

[Mike Brooks]

Of course you know I would use it.

[alex e.]

Of course you know I would use it.

That's all the motivation  I need.

[snrub47]

Built a half stock flinter for my on entertainment using an old original barrel, home made set trigger, lock from parts, made the trigger guard, but plate, thimbles, etc, needless to say many hours of work over many months. Finally finished and had been shot about sixty rounds when it accidentally  fell from its resting place. Stock broken in two pieces. Well that ended that project, firewood?...decided to try repair, some glue and accraglass and all is well. I was not very happy with it before it was broken, but  now it seem to have morecharacter.