Origional Method for Filing Knots

[Chris Treichel]

Anyone come accross traditional ways of fixing knot holes in stocks? Do you drill them out and fill with a wood plug or some such? I know modern methods of epoxie etc but for my current build I really don't care if it looks pretty just want to try out some traditional things.  In my case I have one hole thats about 1/8 inch wide and through the stock about half way up from the but plate. 

[Mark Elliott]

I am interested in this myself.   I found a bark inclusion in my chunk gun forearm only after cutting away most of the wood.    I am just inclined to leave it as such things happen with wood and 18th and 19th century makers would not have thrown out a stock because of such a thing.   I have seen knots in original stocks.

[Jerry V Lape]

I think a piece of matching wood, shaped to cover the area, would be inletted just as you would any metal or bone stock decoration.  I have seen European guns with multiple patches like this.  Drilling and plugging will most likely not give you as seamless appearance as a finely inletted wood piece. 

[Dphariss]

Every one is different and will require a different fix depending....
I have been known to drive several or many glue coated pieces of stock wood in to make the flaw look like a weird spot in the grain. The last one I covered with a silver plate after pouring it full of Acra-glas.



Dan

[FL-Flintlock]

Some were just left au naturale bark n' all...

[Chris Treichel]

now that looks like a barn gun!

[Acer Saccharum]

This is an 18th Century Germanic gun, with a heavily patched buttstock. Patched, then shaped and carved. This is not unusual to see at all.

[Acer Saccharum]

Then an American rifle, with patches and splices.




with widespread technology improvements, and cultural expectations, there is an assumption that our work must be perfect, and if it's not perfect, it's no good.  In the  perspective of 200 yrs ago, these guns were primarily tools, and artwork was secondary. Today, we find a shift toward artwork, craftsmanship and beauty rate higher than the utility of the gun.

[Acer Saccharum]

Sorry if you're bored with the same old pictures over and over again. I have only two guns, what can else can I do? 

[PPatch]

Well Acer - the solution is obvious. You must auction off your home, shop tools, wife and any children in order to purchase new examples for us to view. 

I have a small boo-boo (of my own making) to the rear and below a key pin exit hole I made recently. It will still be visible after final shaping of the fore stock. My plan is to shape a small piece of brass into an irregular template and use that to cut a small bit of matching wood, or as close as I can find, out of the block of square wood left on the stock for clamping. I will then use that same piece of brass to cut a matching hole around the mistake, excavate, and inlet the patch using Titebond II for glue and rubber bands as a clamp. The hope is that my repair will be virtually invisible. I could have covered that area with an escutcheon but don't want them on the stock for aesthetic reasons. I have already had to inlet a small chip I knocked out to the immediate rear of the tang. It was knocked out while inletting the tang when I used my rubber mallet to bang on the muzzle end to seat the barrel. that repair was quite successful, but the chip knocked out mostly clean and needed only to be glued back down.

Dave

[David R. Pennington]

I was drilling pin hole for triggerguard lug once in lock mortise and had an oops where the drill chuck tore out a section on the edge of the lock mortise. I resisted the immediate urge to break the thing in half and throw it in the stove, but instead locked up the shop and came back a few days later. I cut a small dovetail into the edge of the mortise and made a little patch and glued it in. No one has ever noticed it even when I ask them to look for the mistake.

[Stophel]

Two German guns about a hundred years apart.
Wood fitted in place and glued with hide glue.

[bgf]

Well Acer - the solution is obvious. You must auction off your home, shop tools, wife and any children in order to purchase new examples for us to view. 

I have a small boo-boo (of my own making) to the rear and below a key pin exit hole I made recently. It will still be visible after final shaping of the fore stock. My plan is to shape a small piece of brass into an irregular template and use that to cut a small bit of matching wood, or as close as I can find, out of the block of square wood left on the stock for clamping. I will then use that same piece of brass to cut a matching hole around the mistake, excavate, and inlet the patch using Titebond II for glue and rubber bands as a clamp. The hope is that my repair will be virtually invisible. I could have covered that area with an escutcheon but don't want them on the stock for aesthetic reasons. I have already had to inlet a small chip I knocked out to the immediate rear of the tang. It was knocked out while inletting the tang when I used my rubber mallet to bang on the muzzle end to seat the barrel. that repair was quite successful, but the chip knocked out mostly clean and needed only to be glued back down.

Dave

If you gouge out a sort of trough (with v-tool if small, gouge if larger) then glue and clamp a sliver of wood into it, it will pretty much disappear once it is filed flush; you don't want the trough of even depth -- let the ends taper up to the surface.  I will look like a bit of grain wildness if it is visible at all.  Just make sure the grain is running the right way and try to match any bold stripe (or you can touch it up).

[PPatch]

If you gouge out a sort of trough (with v-tool if small, gouge if larger) then glue and clamp a sliver of wood into it, it will pretty much disappear once it is filed flush; you don't want the trough of even depth -- let the ends taper up to the surface.  I will look like a bit of grain wildness if it is visible at all.  Just make sure the grain is running the right way and try to match any bold stripe (or you can touch it up).

bgf;

This sounds like a very viable option. Thank you for the information.

Dave

[Majorjoel]

I believe that the Germanic gunsmiths considered knotts in wood to be beauty marks. Kind of like the French ladies with the applied moles on their cheeks back in the 18th century. Or Marilyn Monroe........a mole in just the right spot!  You just leave those knotts alone. 

[Dennis Glazener]

Some were just left au naturale bark n' all...

Would love to see the rest of the gun/stock if you can.
Dennis

[rich pierce]

I think that cheekpiece would grab some whiskers.

[KLMoors]

I was thinking the same thing Rich.  Boom......Oowwweeee!

It looks like a nail was added to hold things in place.

[Mike Brooks]

Some were just left au naturale bark n' all...

Would love to see the rest of the gun/stock if you can.
Dennis

That's my gun, I'll see if I have more pics. It's just a relic, no parts other than the stock.

[FL-Flintlock]

Sorry Mike, didn't know who it belonged to, it was unattributed when I found it on a CF forum.
Mark

[JDK]

Oh, I thought Mike meant he "built" it!!!   Enjoy, J.D.