Original Glue

[rdmadison]

Greetings. I'm new here. I'm cleaning up my 7th MN (they make great gifts), and my most recent one has a rather poorly repaired stock, with three repairs in the usual places: fore-end, heel (not toe), and left of receiver. The tail end of the latter is lifting, and I'm wondering whether to fill and sand or re-glue. The original glue looks like an animal glue but I'm sure you have more experience with this than I do.

I searched posts for "original glue" but nothing came up. Obviously I could use any wood glue or any filler, but I suspect the best repair for both cosmetic and practical purposes would be with original materials, just as with refinishing.

As part of my restoration I do shoot these and sight them in. Right now the tapered end of that patch is just waiting to jab me in the web of my hand.

Advice?

Re: 1932/32 Tula 91/30 barrel and receiver with other parts force-matched; stock has no escutcheons.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Welcome to the board. What kind of glue? The cheap kind, the commies could teach cheap to Scrooge, like the black paint they use to touch up bluing sins. Animal glue for sure, good old Elmer, Elmer's wood glue would do it, Gorilla glue, even Krazy glue for wood. I like the Elmer's best for small repairs because while it may take longer to dry it's easier for me to clean up any I spill, or squeeze out onto the stock finish. Stock repairs are cool, I love to see how far the cheap commie %$#@'s would go to avoid spending for a new stock blank, repairs like this are something you never see on Uncle Sam's rifles unless they are bringhomes from the third world. Post up some pictures of the repairs, my record is I think 8-9 repairs on one stock, but that was a Balkan used rifle. The only people with worse economy's than the Soviets themselves behind the iron curtain were the Balkan countries, they were seriously broke. Resize the pictures down to 640x480 before posting them, or just link to a photo hosting site, then no resize needed.

It's OK to shoot them if you want, some collectors do, others don't.

[clayshooter2]

The Spanish did some strange stock field repairs too.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Spanish did some strange stock field repairs too.

And for the same reasons as the Balkans countries, no money, no supply system, no hope of resupply, they had to make do with whatever they could use.

[rdmadison]

On closer examination and comparison to other stocks, the glue--black in this case--seems to be pitch, although I certainly couldn't say whether it was pine-based or not. Inside the receiver well there is a little overflow, and it's "pitch black" and shiny. I suspect this is the same kind of tar we used at Mystic Seaport to caulk seams.

I think this is the same material used to fill major dings on an M38 I have.

Anyway, I'm pretty far from a shipyard these days so I used Titebond Original. The separation left a gap of about .005 inch, so I impregnated a piece of paper with the glue and worked it into the crack. That gave me a triangle of contact with an area of about 1/4" square. This morning I cut away the excess paper, sanded very lightly with 220, and blended the repair by rubbing with an alcohol-soaked patch, transferring dirty shellac from the rest of the stock (which had been carefully scraped prior to re-shellac). After a coat of amber shellac at noon and a subsequent rubbing, think I'm ready for reassembly.

I'm not very good with pictures, but it hardly matters: envision a crappy stock with a repair that now looks the same as all the rest .

[zeebill]

I think the Finn's used a type of animal glue that came from Reindeers in some way. I used a good quality Super Glue not the cheap stuff. I have gotten away from Gorilla Glue entirely as it always seems to ooze and run and leave damage to the wood in someway and it does not store well after it is opened. For inside the stock repairs I have used acra-glass on larger projects and two part epoxy, either in slow or quick acting form depending on the repair. I shoot everything I own for the most part so even dowels (that are not visible) have been used at times. Actually the Finn's used dowels years ago and you will see many tang repairs on their rifles. They even used nails and covered them with a reddish wood putty of some sort. Bill