Larks
40 Cal
I’d be interested in opinions, ideas, experiences and outcomes with repairing any flintlock (or other) pistol stocks - reproduction or original.
I picked up a cheap (probably not cheap enough) Japanese repro “Tower flintlock Dragoon pistol” with a repaired(ish) stock with the thought of tidying it up and tuning the lock as a learning exercise and to be able to shoot it.
The stock had been described as cracked, not broken and repaired, but I had suspected that was the case anyway so wasn’t overly surprised by it when it arrived and I didn’t expect much from the lock and finish, so it is pretty much what I paid for and the price suited my expectations and intentions with this gun.
So what I want to deal with is the really poorly repaired stock as well as the woefully fitted butt cap, as can be seen in the photos.
I may yet have a play with building a new stock entirely but the value of the pistol kinda makes me question whether it’d be worth the effort and timber ........ so for now I’m interested in seeing any alternative repair methods that may have worked nicely for anyone else here....
I confess that I’m applying a boat building mind to this repair rather than any experience whatsoever in gunstock building or repairing - but my initial thoughts include :
Ideally I’d love to see some photos of repairs with some information on how you did them, what glue you used and so on.
I picked up a cheap (probably not cheap enough) Japanese repro “Tower flintlock Dragoon pistol” with a repaired(ish) stock with the thought of tidying it up and tuning the lock as a learning exercise and to be able to shoot it.
The stock had been described as cracked, not broken and repaired, but I had suspected that was the case anyway so wasn’t overly surprised by it when it arrived and I didn’t expect much from the lock and finish, so it is pretty much what I paid for and the price suited my expectations and intentions with this gun.
So what I want to deal with is the really poorly repaired stock as well as the woefully fitted butt cap, as can be seen in the photos.
I may yet have a play with building a new stock entirely but the value of the pistol kinda makes me question whether it’d be worth the effort and timber ........ so for now I’m interested in seeing any alternative repair methods that may have worked nicely for anyone else here....
I confess that I’m applying a boat building mind to this repair rather than any experience whatsoever in gunstock building or repairing - but my initial thoughts include :
- cut the butt end off along the broken edge to produce a clean line, allowing that I’ll loose roughly 5mm of length in cleaning it up
- split the cut-off but cap longitudinally and glue in a “filler” piece (@5mm thick) - both to widen it so that I can better shape the butt to fit the bronze butt cap and extending the inserted piece up into the stock about 25mm as a reinforcing piece when it’s re-glued.
- refit the butt end accepting that it is @5mm shorter than before, or add another @5mm filler piece across the glue line to keep the length, making the glue line completely apparent rather than ineffectively hoping it will disappear if it’s just glued 5mm shorter
- glue the whole lot back together with epoxy and possibly with a shaped fashion piece (brass or timber) inlet into either side of the grip straddling the glue line and acting as further reinforcing along the grip.
- reshape the re-glued grip to better fit the butt cap and clean it all up - strip and refinish the whole stock as one
- I have a selection of timber here and am thinking of using a dark hardwood timber for the repair pieces - maybe Ebony or Jarrah - something that will contrast with rather than try and match the stock
Ideally I’d love to see some photos of repairs with some information on how you did them, what glue you used and so on.
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