Splicing on some wood.

[docone]

Merry Christmas to all!
At any rate, I have this blank. I plan on making an half stock rifle with it. It is figuired maple and the butt stock is a little narrow to make full profile. I will need to splice from the front of the piece. It is longer than I need.
Is there a way to make the meeting point invisible? I really do not care for full profile as it is not really a period piece. I just want to make a sound rifle.
The piece was given to me and I do not want it to up in smoke.
Any ideas?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Are you saying that the wood is too thin?  How thick is it?

[Scota4570]

The last one I did was a trapdoor with wood busted out around the tang. I had to replace the wood on both sides of the top of the tang.  I found some walnut with simmilar width growth rings density and color.   I then split off patches so that the grain was oriented the same way.  Since the missing pieces were split off and the platches were split off the match was pretty good.  I block sanded both sides of the patches and stock.  I scraped the middle of the stock breaks where the patches would certainly cover for a tighter visible joint.   I epoxyed one side at a time in place using surgical tubing as clamps.  I then inletted the tang.  In the end the added on pieces are hard to see.  The grain matches well, even the growth rings match up.  I got lucky on that. It was a lot of meticulious work but worth it since it was a rare varision of trap door.   

[docone]

The blank is wide enough. At the toeplate juncture, it is about 2" too narrow. There is enough to make the basic lines, but, the part where the toe plate goes will be missing. I am a large person, and I need all the wood there I can get. My LOP is 15". I will need to splice from about where the bottom of the screw in the buttplate goes to where the basic front of the toe plate goes.
I am looking for all the hints I can get with this. I think I will learn a lot for sure.

[Ky-Flinter]

Oh!  I get it now.  The butt of the blank is thick enough for the width of the butt plate, but not wide enough to allow a normal pointed toe area.  Is the blank still squared up?  If so, that should make life easier.  Cut off the waste from the front end of your blank and try to find the best match of curl and grain.  Trim the graft appropriately.  Smooth the mating surfaces and glue together.  Elmer's makes an outdoor glue that will take stain.  The glue line should be very narrow and stain will mostly hide it.  Once you have the stock shaped down and ready to install the toeplate, you could use long screws to further anchor the grafted piece.

-Ron

[galamb]

If Ron has your issue figured out, can you do this?

Sometimes you can think and work "outside the box" - at least what first seems apparent.



Depending on how the grain is running in the blank you might be much better off canting your pattern on the piece of wood - may get better grain orientation through the wrist.

[docone]

I canted it. Fits real well, without compromising grain.
I never would have thought of that. It even misses the one knot that is starred.
Brilliant.
Thanks for the input. It helps.

[Kermit]

Always seem that no matter the problem, a half-dozen folks have solved it in a half-dozen clever ways.

[galamb]

I work from "boards" so almost always have to cant my patterns to get the grain in the wrist correct.

Yes, creates a lot of waste wood which is why I suspect the pre-cut blanks are so expensive. With some (boards) 2 1/2X9X60" (or 9 1/4 board feet), I only get a single full stock blank. But if the grain co-operates I can get the full-stock plus one or (sometimes) two half-stock blanks from the same board.

[docone]

I haven't made any cuts yet, but it looks like I can put some drop in the butt stock. No more than 1,2" but that should be enough. I have to really crank my head down to use the sights. My vision is bad enough and cranking it down makes it awkward to use.
Now, to bring the stock out of the wood.

[galamb]

It's in there (the stock), you just have to clear away the excess/un-necessary wood and it will pop right out