Stock Repair

[Curtis]

A couple of years back I purchased an original Leman that was located halfway across the country, knowing it had some existing repairs to the wrist area.  Unfortunately one of the repairs separated completely during shipping.  I know some would say old rifles should be left in whatever condition they are found, however I had purchased this gun as a squirrel shooter and it is obvious this "ain't this stock's first rodeo" as there have been several obvious older repairs.

I tied it up with a leather thong and stored it away until I could effect a repair.  In the meantime I researched repair methods and also was inspired by several posts on this board, primarily this one by Taylor on the old board: http://americanlongrifles.org/old_board/index.php?topic=10457.0

After removing the barrel, lock, trigger guard and trigger plate I ended up with this.  Also The piece above the lockplate was barely held on by two brass pins:



The rear screw on the trigger plate was snapped off and the tip of the screw was buried in the wood.  I drilled around the screw with a small bit until I could get a hold of it with needle nose pliers, then drilled the area out for a plug.



I sanded the plug until it was a tight press fit and glued with Titebond II.  I then chiseled off the excess and stained the plug.  I then checked the trigger assembly for fit.






I cleaned the loose stuff off the cracked pieces of the stock and applied 2 coats of release agent liberally on the stock around the entire areas to be repaired, then set it aside to cure while mixing the acraglass components and one small drop of brown dye.



Next comes the acraglass, again applied liberally:



I then pressed the stock together (you can see the wood dowel still in place from the old repair.)



The three parts were then clamped with tightly wrapped surgical tubing.



After 12 hours I removed the tubing.



The excess acraglass was easily removed with a light touch using cabinet scrapers, my thumbnail and very fine steel wool.  The remaining release agent was removed with a rag dampened with rubbing alcohol.  You can see there was some wear around some of the edges of the old repairs.



I rubbed the stock with a very light coat of boiled linseed oil, then rubbed a little beeswax into the extra triggerguard pinhole and the bad crack above the lock panel to smooth the transition a bit.




As a side note to the stock repair, while I had the rifle apart I was looking the barrel over closely and noticed a tiny golden gleam on the corner of one of the flats.  I had noticed before that there had once been a gold band inlay on the barrel, but assumed it had flaked off years ago.  I gently worked it with the folded edge of a piece of 500 grit wet/dry sandpaper and this is what I found under the brown grime.  Bonus!



Thanks for looking.

[stubshaft]

Great photos of a wrist repair.  That gold band really sticks out now and draws the eye away from the repaired area.

[Nate McKenzie]

Nice job indeed.

[bgf]

Really good work.  I like that it is not hidden, but not ugly either.  If that doesn't hold up, you can try the brass sheet and dozens of nails approach (just kidding).

[jwh1947]

Your job is much better than many I've recently seen and it is an honest repair to a working man's gun.  100 years from now if one of our contemporaries gets used a lot and broken, I hope someone fixes it, too.  Looks as if you have a signed lock as well as barrel.  Lemans have an appeal around here because they are signed and affordable.

[Ed Wenger]

Curtis, that is very well, and tastefully done.  Thanks for sharing with us!

               Ed

[omark]

what about putting this in tutorials?    mark

[smylee grouch]

So, was the barrel in shooting condition?   Did it have narrow cuts and wide lands like alot of other Lemans that i have seen?  And yes, from here it looks like you did a good job with what you had to work with.      Gary

[gusd]

Curtis,
Good job & thanks for the pictures!
Gus D.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Curtis, thanks for sharing  your work. I like it!!

[TPH]

Curtis, the repair is very well done and thank you for showing us the step by step example, I also vote for putting this in the Tutorials. One question though, did you use red or green Accraglass? It appears that you may have used green? If so, watch it VERY carefully, especially if you are going to shoot the gun. Green Accraglass is best used only for bedding, it does not have have the staying power that the red has as a glue. The last time I used green for a glue it was because I ran out of red during a multiple break repair and the green repairs failed while the red held up beautifully and is still holding after almost 20 years - the green had to be redone using red.

[Curtis]

Thanks for the good words, guys.  I decided to take the "honor the battle scars" approach to fixing this old gal and resisted the urges to re-apply the fake striping that was lost in the earlier repairs.  She is what she is and I thought it deserved to stay as close to a"as found" condition but yet be whole again.  The bore is in very decent condition and should make a nice shooter.  I dropped a bore light down the muzzle and tried to get a decent photo but was unable to get one that showed the rifling well enough to tell what it looked like.  Below is the best one I could get and a picture of the muzzle.  The deep cuts at the muzzle are only about a half inch deep, and the grooves are about half as wide as the lands down in the barrel.  It's .34 caliber.




I was fortunate enough that someone gave me an understudy project (suppository gun - bolt action .410) that had been run over by a car.  I didn't get any pics after staining and finishing - gave it to my son for his birthday. As you as you can see the repair was excellent practice for the Leman.  I was afraid to touch the Leman before I worked on the .410.

[Curtis]

One question though, did you use red or green Accraglass? It appears that you may have used green?

T.P. - I used the liquid Acraglass in the red box, it was recommended to me by another board member.  Glad to hear it holds up well.

[Dphariss]

One question though, did you use red or green Accraglass? It appears that you may have used green?

T.P. - I used the liquid Acraglass in the red box, it was recommended to me by another board member.  Glad to hear it holds up well.

Thanks for the tutorial
Should make a good squirrel shooter.
I would be interested knowing the bore size, ball size, patch required and what the fouling/cleaning characteristics are.

Dan

[Curtis]

I would be interested knowing the bore size, ball size, patch required and what the fouling/cleaning characteristics are.

Dan

I'll be sure to post when I get a load worked up for it.

[Dave K]

Great going on the repair. My hat is off to you for repairing this gun and getting her ready for the field. I am sure the original builder thanks you for preserving his work. Like is often said about guns, if they could talk, this one would be saying thank you.

[Ray-Vigo]

I'll put in here what I said on the muzzleloading board too, just in case it can help anyone else along these same lines.

Great information-- this post should be archived or pinned. A break in that part of the stock is tricky because of the force you put on that narrow wrist area when loading the piece.

I did something similar with a stock that had been cut heavily modified. It had been cut down to a 12.25 pull, which for me is too short. I wanted to go back out to 13.5 or so.

What I did was to get a block of decent wood and attach it to the butt. I took the wood and roughly shaped it out to approximate the stock shape.

Then I drilled two holes up into the core of the stock. These probably were 3 inches or so. I then ran two long wood screws through the addition block and into the stock (this is from the butt end). I guess these fulfill the function of that dowel you used.

In the joint between the addition and the stock I put carpenter's glue (never heard of the acraglass until this post you made). I'd gotten a lot of experience with wood glue when I was younger-- my dad used it for many repairs around the house.

I then tightened the screws in and wiped away whatever wood glue overflowed out of the joint. I let all that dry for a couple days. I then returned to the block and used a dremel to shape the block to match the stock. I then did the finishing by hand sanding, until I was happy with the match.

I then stained the addition block to match the stain that was on the stock. At some point a previous owner had re-stained the stock. Rather than strip the whole thing down, I just did a match to what was already there. It actually came out alright doing this.

Once that dried I got some brass sheet stock and made a buttplate. I did have to shape and modify my plate a little to deal with the heads of the screws that connected the block to the stock, but that wasn't too big a deal. I then polished and screwed in the final buttplate.

So I guess what I did was very similar to your method, though instead of acraglass I used wood glue and instead of a dowel I used steel woodscrews to act as "truss screws" to keep the stock and block tight and secure. I'll admit my main inspiration for the screws was not so much traditional gun design as guitar necks-- they generally have a steel rod that keeps them strong and in shape. I figured I could do the same with steel wood screws. That way when loading the gun, I wouldn't have to worry about the block snapping off the stock at the glue joint.

[Ray-Vigo]

Here's a couple quick shots of the repair I mentioned. The basement shop doesn't have great lighting for taking pictures-- just the work lamps. They're fine for working, but the camera doesn't seem to like it down there.