You'll have to deal with this most of the time with gun stocks. When the irregular shapes or uneven
surfaces are to be sanded, sanding procedure would differ somewhat. When special curved areas are
involved shape the sandpaper so it matches the contour that you will be sanding. You can hold its
shaped with your fingers and sandpaper the curved area being very careful, make sure that you do not
alter the shape while your sanding.
REMOVING DENTS
On gun stocks you will have usually many dents as well as scratches. When you have to deal with the
dents, and before the dents can be removed, the finish Overland must be removed. Care you will use a
high-quality paint or varnish remover, scrape off much of the finish, white and sandpaper. In sanding
down pass the dents will usually removed to much wood, so the dance must be raised until level with his
surroundings surface of the stock.
A dent on the raw wood surface can usually be removed easily without having to scrape or sandpaper
the area affected. Wood is composed of microscopic cells, and in a dent, the cells had been crushed
out of shape. If the fibers of the wood and not been cut or damage, the problems is merely to restore the
shape of these crushed cells. The process is very simple. You can do this by wetting the surface area
with a few drops a water and in permitting this water to soak into the wood. As the wood this or the
water, the sales expand and take their original shape. You now allow this area to dry thoroughly and in
sandpaper with fine finishing paper to remove any unusual swelling left by the water.
Sometimes it's procedure would not produce the desired results, either because of the hard surface of
the wood or the depths of the dent area in such cases place a few drops a water on the dent area then
touch the water with the hot point of the knife or some other heated bar. This action will produce a small
pocket of steam around the affected area. The moist, hot steam will penetrate the pores of the wood
more readily and cause the affected cells to absorb this hot moisture and then expand. Repeat this
operation several times until areas expanded sufficiently for you to sandpaper it flush to the adjacent
area.
Sometimes even this does not work and it will then become necessary to fill a damage area with one of
several types of fillers prepared for that purpose. In selecting the correct materials for filling holes,
bruises and dents, you must use these that will adhere to the wood, and not shrank when dry as well as
take stained well if he planned to apply a stained.
If the hole is to be filled, first clean out the gouge, removing all dirt and loose fibers. Next, collect a
spoonful of sawdust from the stock you are working on and mix with epoxy glue until the mixture takes on
the appearance of putty. Press the filler into the hole to overflowing. Be certain the mixture is pressed
firmly to expel any air trapped in the dent, and add a little extra to allow for shrinkage.
Allow to dry, then sand the mound down even with the surface of the stock. The stock is ready to refinish.
If the dent is deep, the hole will have to be patched. A common patch is a diamond patch of wood or
plastic, which can be purchased from many gunsmith supply houses. Do not be concerned if the patch
is not the same color as the wood of the stock. Contrasting colors add decoration to the stock. To insert
the patch, lay it over the dent, mark the patch outline, and cut out the gouge to the shape of the diamond