Crack in stock Repair

[Reds]

Hi All, I am starting the process of refinishing a stock that has a hairline crack coming from the lower front tang area and going rearward below the lock bolt. My question is should I repair it Prior to stripping the finish or after. I would think it should be clean to repair but not sure if stripper would affect epoxy or the likes! Plan on using Citristrip for removing the finish. Thanks in advance, Reds

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

If it were mine, I'd repair after stripping.

 

[LongWalker]

If you do the repair before stripping, etc, it will give a better color match. Cleanup of glue squeeze-out is easier too.

 

[64Springer]

I would repair before stripping.

You don't want the stripping chemicals infecting/impregnating the wood.

Right now, that wood is clean clean and perfect for some Tite Bond III waterproof glue.

 

[Reds]

Thanks for y’all’s instructions! The crack I believe is from the barrel not mating flush with the tang. There was a small gap between them at the bottom. The tang had a burr dead center at the top where the button hooks in place. After removing the burr the barrel and tang lined up perfectly and I had to remove a little wood from under tang seat towards the rear. It’s a perfect fit now so it should not have further issues. The crack actually goes downward from the outside and under the bottom of the tangs seating so I will also glassbead it when replacing. Also this old CVA Mountain Stalker has the tang bolt that goes through to trigger assembly.

 

[scratcherky]

How are you planning on making the repair?

 

[Reds]

I’m going to do the repair before I strip using T-88. After reading all here and other sites as well that’s what I will be doing. Thanks again for all the views! Reds

 

[SDSmlf]

Typically wood glues like Elmers or Titebond don’t adhere well to themselves in my experience if repair fails and you try to re-glue, while Acraglas for example, is designed to adhere to itself, and it will really run down into cracks. Plus you can add dye to help hide the repair. Just something to think about.

 

[Mike Stone]

Hello all
What I do with cracked antique stocks is if the crack is not complete, meaning if the stock is in one piece I'll make a little wedge out of some hickory and drive it into the crack to open it up a little bit.
I found the best glue to be gorilla glue or any good polyurethane type glue. The first thing to do is if the crack is near where the lock work was there will be oil impregnating the wood so it needs to be soaked overnight in acetone to assure a good Bond. I use a 3 mm syringe with an 18 gauge needle fill it with glue and inject it as far as I can into the crack. Clamp her down let it sit overnight. The glue expands a little bit so you'll need to scrape off the excess glue. And I would do all this before stripping the stock. Have this many times, completely broken stocks and simple cracks. Hope that's helpful