Lock to stock gap

[Brdhntr]

Howdy,
How would you address this small gap between the lock and the stock?


Thanks!

Ben

[EC121]

I would ignore it!!

[smylee grouch]

If you have any leftover wood I would shave some circles off that and glue them in maybe with tight bond . Do it before any finishing oil to the area.

[rich pierce]

Is there a small crack starting along the top edge of the tail of the lock? I’d attend to that if that’s what I’m seeing.

[Brdhntr]

No cracks. I might ignore, because this seems like something i might make worse.
I have mixed sawdust with wood glue in the past to fix small gaps, but that seems wrong for this. Because the lock will come off and on.

[parve]

I would look at the rest of the lock inlet, congratulate myself on a job well done, and move on.

[Brdhntr]

Thanks Phil

 

[A.Merrill]

Put a small piece of soaking wet paper towel on it for a few hours it may swell out. If not, soak it again then remove the paper towel put a drop of water on it and touch a hot clothes iron or wood burning tool or hot piece of steel to the drop of water ( not the wood)  it must be hot enough to sizzle and steam the water away fast. The stem can swell the wood. This works best on dents, not so much on missing wood but it's worth a try.   Al

[Scota4570]

It looks fine. 

You could steam it as mentioned.  If you put finish in the in-letting it will fill any gaps to a small degree.

I once closed a significant gap on an grossly over intended barrel channel by getting it soaking wet with hot water then binding it with surgical tubing with the barrel in place.  I let it dry for a week.   It worked very well and stayed gap free for years. 

[Daniel Coats]

You can't really splice in wood in this case because the difference in grain direction will always show. After it is stained during the finishing process you can patch a small area like that with epoxy sand lightly and finish over it. Since the epoxy and finish are both clear and applied over stained wood it will be pretty hard to see.

[Brdhntr]

I am going to steam it like a clam! I will post what happens. Thanks!

[Birddog6]

IF you steam it with the lockplate in, BE Careful taking the plate back out after it dries. It may have swelled wood next to it & pull some slivers & make things worse. IMHO, It is not the same as compressed wood like a dent. A dent has wood already there, you have wood missing. I suggest you leave it alone. It is not that bad & it is what it is.  Real easy to blunder this now & then you have a Obvious repair.  Just another 2 cents worth.

[Mike payne]

Don’t worry about it by the time you get the finish on it it will most likely disappear.

[smart dog]

Hi,
I suspect it will disappear when you apply stain and finish.  Don't steam it out now.  Move on and get the gun ready for finish and then when whiskering the stock, assess the gap if it still exists.  If you steam the lock mortis now you will likely have to scrape the edges after putting finish on the stock because the lock will be too tight.  Whatever you do, never use sawdust mixed with glue as a filler on a gun stock except in places that will never show.

dave

[Robert Wolfe]

I'm with those who say it will be fine.

[Brdhntr]

Great guidance, as usual.

The consensus is to leave it alone.

Thanks for the help!

Ben

[Wood Hick]

Sanding your lock panel down a bit maybe 1/32 could help.

[mountainman70]

All above is good advise
Ive had similar fun.
By the time I got it sealed and finished I couldnt find it, so I promptly forgot about it
Thats easy to do anymore
Keep after it bro. Ya lookin good
Old sayin here is
Its not how good a smith you are
Its how well you fix your booboos!!
Best regards
Dave

[elkhorne]

Brdhntr, Watch Bill Raby’s videos on his Haines Lancaster videos wher he shows how he fixes small gaps so, when finished, you can not even see where they were. Mike Brooks has a past ALR post showing his build of a Lehigh rifle that had a number of worm holes. He pre-stained the areas and glued in matching grain before finishing. Most of his repairs, as I remember, can not even be found. Good luck because all builders, beginner or master make small mistakes sooner of later! During a class several years ago with Jack Brooks at WKU, he had shown us several techniques for fixing errors and I told him I had a realization! I told him the only difference between new builders and experienced builders was that the experienced ones already knew how to fix their mistakes!

[Eric Krewson]

I am with the steam it crowd. If you decide to patch it don't put in stacked up shavings of wood, glue in a large piece with matching grain and inlet it for a good fit.

This is what stacked up shavings from a plane looks like on a TC lock swap to an L&R RPL lock that didn't fit the inlet, I didn't know better at the time.

Before patching;



After; I sold the gun, if I still had it I would do a propper repair on it now.

[rich pierce]

Especially on walnut , matching the grain is essential in patching.

[Eric Krewson]

I have never heard anyone mention it but I fit a patch by lightly blacking the mating surfaces with lamp soot and inlet the extra wood into place like I would a metal part for a seamless glue joint. This is especially handy when fitting a patch to a curved inlet like the lock below. This was a slow and tedious process.

Like this on a badly misplaced lock inlet on a pre-carve.

[Scota4570]

When I have glued in slivers I have had issues with them falling out later .  A tang patch comes to mind.  Also if you glue in a sliver it will not stain well because it is saturated with glue. 

[Bob Gerard]

I finished up this partially built Fowler that had the king of gaps in comparison to what you have got going there. The lock plate from some unknown lock was already cut out and I found an L&R Queen Ann lock that was the closest fit. Like others have said, small shims of similar wood glued in place did the trick.
(My lesson here though was to not “sand” the joining woods with a 3M pad. I should have just used 220 grip paper and then burnished it)
In a space as small as you would be working on there, I wonder how you could even add a shim into it without first enlarging the gap, which would be a big mistake I think.

[Dave B]

That gap is really not that big, you could take a cold chisel to the inboard back of the lock plate and a 5 lb sledge and give it a good whack and bob's your uncle you got not gap. Of course of if you wach too hard you double  your trouble. I have fixed gaps  on occasian by moving metal to fill the void.



I need to come clean on this however. I was in the middle of resoring the forestock on this rifle and had the barrel out and accidently dropped it on my padded foam shop mat and the spear point of the tang went right through to the cement floor blunting the spear point. There wa a bit of a gap even befor I dropped the barrel but the thickness of the tang was over heavy and I heated it up and cross peaned the tang out to fit the inlet. I made a cold chisel to tighten up the square hole of the hammers/flint cock on the shank of the tumbler would work in this type of modification of the edge of the lock plate. The shank chisel is only about a 1/4" wide.  The wood shaving from a tangential section of Black walnut using a razor sharp block plane would give you a shaving that had the correct grain structure and help some in making it blend and being the simplest solution to your troubles