Back in the shop

[WKevinD]

So far I just have pictures but they do tell a story. This was delivered in November never fired but dropped hard once.
It looks like it be a clean repair and reinforcing when it gets back....I'll find out soon enough.

Kevin

[Mattox Forge]

In one of the pictures it looks like it broke perpendicular to the grain somehow. There must be some wierd grain in that wrist for it to be such a ckean break.

Mike

[Jim Kibler]

No question a long grain break.  It can sometimes be hard to tell the grain direction in maple while in a board or blank.

[HSmithTX]

That looks like a contemporary rifle? Unless otherwise special that stock looks like a fire log to me?  I don't remember if it was David R or David C that routed out under the triggerguard with an endmill and deeply splinted a wrist to counter a grain issue not 1/4 this bad, I think that would probably make this stock as solid as one with good grain through the wrist. Honest question, at what point do you fix it and and what point do you restock?  Guessing this one is simply the customer wants it fixed?

[t.caster]

A lot of old guns had had a brass or thin steel piece wrapped around the wrist after a bad break, and tacked or screwed on. This looks like a good candidate for that.
I would fashion a steel dowel inside the break and use Tie-Bond 2 on the crack. Then I would think about wrapping it with brass or rawhide to look old.

[Daniel Coats]

Hard to tell without more pictures but it might be possible to come all the way from the butt and install a long screw through the wrist area. A pilot hole would be the trick of course.

[bluenoser]

That looks to be a good clean break with no splintering and good registration (pieces line up nicely).  There is no way I would scrap it.  Appears to be room for multiple pins under the trigger guard and at roughly right angle to the break.  Loose pins could be installed further up and further toward the sides.  As much as I favor PVA (yellow carpenter's glue), this appears to be a job for tinted epoxy - mainly due to the pins.

[Top Jaw]

I watch a lot of YouTube videos on guitar repair. Luthiers often use routered in quarter inch well fitting slab sawn hardwood “splines” to reinforce broken headstocks.  If I were tasked to fix this one, I would probably go that route after talking with the owner about covering the repair with a plain rawhide wrap laced up on the bottom or a thin brass overlay (or partially inlet) and tacked to the stock.  By covering it rather than trying to make it invisible, you could make a much sturdier repair with double splines about an inch or so apart on top and one or two on the bottom.

 If the owner insists on a more invisible repair, pre-glue the joint - and then after, add one deep spline under the trigger guard rail and perhaps install one under a longer wrist inlay on top.   But this wouldn’t be nearly as strong as gluing the neck joint - and after drying, adding 3 or 4 splines, glued proud and filed back to surface level.  Note that almost all Luthier’s use wood glue for these repairs and not epoxy. Even for headstocks breaks that are sometimes under as much as 180 pounds of extra string tension.  Also surgical tubing is often the preferred method of clamping a rounded glue joint.  My 2 cents. 

[HSmithTX]

This is the repair I was thinking of, Dave C was the poster.

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=75845.msg754818#msg754818

[recurve]

I had a bad wrist  break on a rifle and had cabin creek repair it (you can barely tell) they did a great job involving a steel rod Brad stated it is stronger than new

[WKevinD]

Thanks for the suggestions.
If it is as clean as it appears I will glue with brown hide glue and compress with surgical tubing and clamps held between two vises and let it set for at least 24hrs and then drill from the butt and insert an epoxied threaded rod to reinforce.
That's all guess work, havn't held it since it was delivered.

Kevin

I did one like that before this one was a USPS smash

[bluenoser]

I have switched from using surgical tubing to strips of bicycle innertube and find they work better.  For one thing, they lay flatter and, I think, exert more even pressure.  The strips are approx. 1/2" wide.

[rich pierce]

I have switched from using surgical tubing to strips of bicycle innertube and find they work better.  For one thing, they lay flatter and, I think, exert more even pressure.  The strips are approx. 1/2" wide.

Same here. If there’s a bike shop nearby ask them to give you a couple inner tubes with the valves cut off. Offer a dollar and they’ll probably give it to you for free. By cutting the valves off they know you’re not going to patch and use them. Tell them you’re making bungee cords.

[whetrock]

It can be hard to patch a diagonal break without the two pieces sliding apart. It can help to glue triangle-shaped blocks above and below the break, so that you then have something to clamp that is perpendicular to the break. This basically turns a diagonal break that is likely to slide when clamped into something that can be clamped as if it were a horizontal break. Here's a diagram I put together on this a long time ago for a friend who needed it for a wood working project. I hope what I'm saying is clear enough. I know the diagram may not obviously translate to the angle of the break in this gun wrist.




In the diagram the blocks are just shown as added in two places, but on a broken cylinder, such as gun wrist, you can glue on blocks in several places as needed, so as to be able to apply clamping pressure perpendicular to whatever plane you are dealing with.

I also wanted to mention that when repairing breaks, it can be important to raise any small slivers/splinters from the middle of the break (using a needle) and carefully cut them out. Any loose slivers/splinters in the middle can just prevent the two sides from mating up flush.

[rich pierce]

Nice diagram and something I’d never have thought of on my own. Cool!

[bluenoser]

Nice approach I had not considered.  When faced with a challenging glue-up, I generally throw together a jig with stop blocks, alignment blocks an support blocks.  Takes a little time, but sure lowers the stress when doing the glue-up.