How would you fix these cracks? Krag 1898 Stock

[GunnyUSMC]

My father in law got me started doing stock repair back in 1988. He was an old Gunsmith and tough me a lot of old tricks of the tread. When he passed away, I was the only one that had learned to do stock work from him. He had three sons that never cared for working on guns.
In 2006 I was told that I had tonsil cancer. I was given six months to live if I didn’t go through aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. I gave the doctor one shot. The treatments almost killed me, but I made it. It took me a year to recover enough so that I could go back to work on light duty and another three years before I could go back to full duty. During that time I thought about how much about stock work I knew and if I had died, I had not passed it on to anyone. That’s when I started posting about doing stock repairs. I’ve taken on students and tried to help as many people as can.
I have always said that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and even more ways to do stock repairs. I have learned from mistakes and from other stocksmiths and even tough myself a few things.
I’m more then happy to answer questions if y’all have them. Even the questions that you may think are silly, they can’t be answered if they are not asked.
I retire in August and plan to chase some women for a month or so, but then I plan to get back to doing repairs and making some detailed post to cover different types of repairs.
Tomorrow evening I’ll try to get the blending finished on Carbine85’s stock and post some pics.

 

[27hand]

Very glad you got through that point in your life.
With your knowledge, have you ever considered documenting a variety of stock repair techniques either by you tube ( todays go to source) or creating a repair manual of sorts?
You are detail oriented and present material in an easy to follow method AND as you said, retirement approaches.

I have found much gratification as a welding instructor many years ago and more recently as a (now retired) medical gas instructor. Watching people "get it" after explaining and instructing is just a cool feeling.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Very glad you got through that point in your life.
With your knowledge, have you ever considered documenting a variety of stock repair techniques either by you tube ( todays go to source) or creating a repair manual of sorts?
You are detail oriented and present material in an easy to follow method AND as you said, retirement approaches.

I have found much gratification as a welding instructor many years ago and more recently as a (now retired) medical gas instructor. Watching people "get it" after explaining and instructing is just a cool feeling.

I had a lot of tutorials over at Surplus Rifle Forum under the screen name Candyman, but a lot of the photos and some of the tutorials were lost when the site went down.

 

[Bronco72]

Gunny,
Thank you for the lessons! Awesome

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here’s the next step, the stain matching.
I started with the dowels in the action area. By starting with a spot where it won’t show will allow you to test your colors without fear of messing up.
Here are the colors I’ll be using, black, dark brown and Chestnut Ridge. Chestnut Ridge is a reddish brown.
If you have to mix colors smack cups come in handy. Q-tips come in handy when blending in small areas.
When you apply the stain, the longer it sits on the wood the deeper it will soak in and the darker it will get.
You will need a rag for wiping off the stain after applying.




Starting with your lighter color is best because you can always go darker. I started with the Chestnut Ridge because I wanted a red tent and it’s the lightest colors.





I applied the stain with a Q-tip and let it sit for about 20 seconds and then wipe it off with the rag. Not dark enough.


Then applied dark brown and wiped it off, getting close.



The I added just a little black and wiped it right off. The match was perfect.


Then I just repeated the same steps for the other dowels.


Here’s the side of the stock.


And with Chestnut Ridge applied .


Then the dark brown and black was applied.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

The top of the wrist was darker so I started with the dark brown and then added black.


Now to let it dry for a few hours and then apply some BLO..

 

[carbine85]

Here's the finished product.
Gunny did a great job. If I didn't know what I was looking for I could easily look right past the crack repairs. The large one on the side blends right in with the grain.
The color all matches and the normal handling dent on the side was retained. The stock looks like a normal 122 year old stock.

 

[FROGO207]

Exceptionally well executed.Gunny that's remarkable work.