I have two old Browning forearms with cracks. One is actually a pre model 11 Remington and the other seems to fit all the criteria for being a first year Auto 5, except for the serial number which is too high. Both forearms are original and both have plenty of oil soaked into the cracks. My question is how to get that oil gone so a repair might hold, and then to use wood glue or some epoxy? thank you
The methods discussed in this link mostly involve soaking the stock in acetone and refinishing. I don’t know if you can just keep applying it to the cracks until the wood will bond, but it’s worth a try. http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=822933 Epoxy, Gorilla Glue, or Super Glue will work. I use surgical tubing as a clamp. Good luck.
Thank you for the link Rudolph. That Wonko's brew seems like the one to try. I'll have a go at it one of these days. A while back I cleaned up an old Remington stock that was terribly soaked with oil, by using brake parts cleaner and lots of hot water and detergent baths. It worked very well, like in perfect, but there were no splits to repair, just a refinishing job. You know how the finish liked to flake off in big patches on the 60's and 70's Remington's. The walnut was black where the finish was gone, from oil soaking in. I'm just a bit leary of that method on these, where there's a split in the wood that I'd like to get back together without being able to tell afterwards.
First a question. Are these part of a collection or do you shoot them regularly? The reason I ask is that you will further decrease the value of the shotguns my making any "repairs". If the guns are fully original, I personally would leave them alone and shoot them occasionally as is, and keep them as nice old examples of JMB design ingenuity. That being said, to properly repair those cracks, all the finish and dirt has to be removed. Chemical strippers will work. Brownells sells a compound designed to get oil out of oiled stocks. Getting all the varnish, dirt and wax out of the crack in the lighter colored stock will be tricky, but it can be done with solvent and a dental style pick. After getting the dirt out, epoxy mixed with sanding dust from that stock will make a good filler. Then the stocks fore end and butt stock will have to be refinished together so they would match. Hope this helps. S Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
Thanks Craig for your input. I'll try answer that first question. I am not really a collector although I have around 30 +- of old vintage arms. Not any specific brands, but rather several. I don't hardly ever shoot them anymore either, as I have just a couple I use for hunting and have gotten out of my desire to pull triggers on everything. Heck, some I can't even find ammo for, like a Rem #4 in .32 rimfire. Or a Rem 5mm rimfire that I don't care to spend that much for it. So, I guess I provide good homes for them all, but don't display or use most of them. I do however love to spend an occasional evening with them all, wiping them down and imagining the stories they have to tell. I know what you're saying about ruining value, but I really doubt these are that valuable anyway, and if the cracks aren't fixed, if someone goes and uses them sometime, they might get to be unrepairable real fast. These two shotguns came to me on the same day about 10 years ago. Someone wanted to sell a Rem 11 by ad, so I went to see it and was surprised to see it was a pre-11 and in decent shape so told him sure I'd buy it. He pulled out the Auto5 then and asked if I was interested. I knew it was an older one by the suicide safety but really didn't know much else on how to date them. I also knew it was odd to be a straight stock and no model numbers anywhere on it. I didn't know what to make of the Browning Arms Co. on the barrel. I sure did notice that it'd been shortened up however. He told me that he thought it was a trench gun and I didn't know any better, so bought it. So unless I could ever find a barrel for it, and by that I mean one inscribed like the original, I consider it unshootable. I know the odds of finding one are way low, but then lightening does hit now and then.
I would take the fore ends off and see if the cracks go all the way through. If so, repair the cracks from the inside. This way you don't have to refinish the stocks. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
Looks like your Browning was manufactured in 1904. Plenty rare, and rarer here in the States, as none were imported between 1903 and 1923. Also, notice that the groove in the forearm doesn’t extend all the to the front? That’s original and rarer than the gun it goes on. Cockerill Steel barrels are also very rare, pity yours has been cut. You probably won’t find another barrel to fit as things changed after 1904. A new barrel might work if you also changed out the Bolt and Locking Block.
I sure appreciate the info Rudolph. Are you saying to forget repairing it too? And Craig, here are some more photo's. The crack does go through and its pretty oily and grimy under there. I am unsure how to ever degrease that without doing a complete refinish job. I don't have any fear of refinishing, and I realize that it'll stick out like a sore thumb being it would look new versus the rest of the gun. Your opinions on this do matter to me, as your experiences and knowledge about this sort of work far surpass mine. Here are a few more photo's and if I'm overdoing it just let me know.
Ok. In my opinion, superglue is going to be a good choice. Get some acetone and clean the cracks from the outside localizing the finish removal to just the cracks. Clean the dirt out with a dental pick. Get some medium weight CA adhesive and fill the cracks. Don't worry too much about pressing them closed together. Let the clear glue dry high so that you can feel the raised glue line. When the glue is dry and rigid, use a rasor blade or hand scraper with a sharp burr to scrape the glue flat or contoured with the surface. Once it is smooth, touch up with local application of Tru oil. Blend the Tru oil into the surrounding with 0000 steel wool or wet sand with 1000 grit wet dry paper lubed with mineral spirits. Once the sheen is even, you will still see t g e crack but not feel it. The super glue will have soaked in and bonded with the wood to make a clear nearly invisible patch. If any of it weeps through to the inside, scrape it off with a sharp chisel. I have used this method on countless pieces if furniture to repair and hide deep scratches or gouges. HTH, Shawn Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
This is what I'm talking about. Lots of places sell it. Medium weight has a little more open/drying time than the regular thin "super glue". Easier to control when working in small spaces. Easily applied with a pop sickle stick sharpened to a point for a throw away spatula. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
I was going to say to try the repair from the inside, but Leland has much more expertise than I have, so I’ll defer to him. Just do all that you can to preserve the original finish. By the way, your wife probably has a bottle of acetone with a little applicator brush that might be perfect for degreasing forearm cracks. She calls it “Nail Polish Remover”.
I would definitely recommend repairing them from the inside IF he can get all the gun oil and dirt off first. Then definitely seal the cracks from the inside with superglue as described above. A second note is that nail polish remove is diluted acetone. Get a quart of full strength acetone from the home Depot or wherever you buy that stuff. If the interiors of the fore ends can be cleaned with acetone well enough, the interior patch is the way. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
When my wife removes her polish, it sure doesn’t smell diluted. But, the applicator brush was my main suggestion. Great to have you here, Leland. You’ve become a valuable resource. I’ll be looking for a bottle of Stick Fast.
Titebond and others sell CA adhesive in various thickness. I found Titebond brand at the home depot in medium weight. Nail polish remover for nail acrylic is diluted with water and other agents to make it less irritating to the fingers. If you don't have any Acetone, use lacquer thinner to clean the cracks in the stocks. Acetone and lacquer thinner are great cleaners, but they are harsh on the skin, so I recommend nitrile gloves when using ca glue and it's solvents. AND DON'T TOUCH YOUR FINGERS TOGETHER WHEN USING CA ADHESIVE. It is after all generic super glue. As Rudolf13 stated minimize the finish removal as much as you can. I mean only in the crack area and no more than a pencil line either side of the crack. use the dental pick to abrade the crack. The CA glue will bond to the stock, wood splinters, and old varnish. It kinda melts it all together.
Shawn, thank you for the great advice. I have been a woodworker for a long time now. Over 40 years. And I have used super glue on many small repairs, nd for sizing or stiffening up funky wood that I want to turn on the lathe. I repaired a grain separation with CA on a chair from a dining table and chairs that I built 25 years ago and the repair is still invisible. So I'm fairly convinced of it standing the test of time. Often enough I've been faced with having to use some wood with holes where the knot fell out, or bark inclusions, when working on remodels, such as at my sons house a few years ago. We did a full rebuild and added I-joist beams here and there for support to eliminate walls. Some of those I ran out of long enough lumber to cover them, without resorting to using stuff with holes and cracks. Some beams were 18' some 22' long. I had a unit of oak about 800 bf of 22'+ length that I had specially cut and then dried and then stored in my shed for years. The quantity just made it for the job as we used it for all sorts of baseboard and beam wrap and crown moldings up against the ceilings. So when I got to the stuff less than perfect, we used an epoxy to fill holes, and some of those holes were 2" across. I got that epoxy they sold at menard's they use for setting anchor bolts in concrete. Main reason it was jet black and would look good as a filler in a knot hole. I was a bit apprehensive how that would all work out, but dang all the repairs are still looking good with no signs of failure after 6 years now. So what do you think about cleaning it up good and using a clear epoxy and tinting it with a bit of lampblack or printers ink? Just enough so it ends up looking like a natural mineral streak in the wood? Or would that look worse yet? If so maybe I could play with adding some orange analine dye to the glue to get a close match.
That would work. Cool. A fellow woodworker. Any repair techniques you use for furniture you can use for the gun stocks. I have even used shellac mixed with sawdust to fill cracks. For t g e shock of a shotgun, I would use CA glue or something stronger. S Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
I sure appreciate the expert advice from both Shawn and Rudolph. I'll have a go at this and report back when I get it finished. Thank you.
