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English 37 stock project in progress


impala59
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Having recently acquired a Ithaca Model 37 20g English Model, I was somewhat disheartened to see that at sometime in its life the butt end had been sawn off and a rather nasty brass butt plate installed. The original had no plate but was finished with horizontal grip lines and a bung which filled the stock bolt hole. The stock having been brutalised was also a little short. I decided to add about a half inch as I had some American walnut from a previous project. There was also a bad crack repair where the stock joins the receiver and some gashes in the wood including a quite nasty dent in the checkering. I got out most of the dents and carefully recut the checkering, I remade he cracked area with a much stronger repair (removing a little material from the inside where it appears to have been struck by the working parts moving rearwards.)

I did not want to screw the new piece in place and went a different route so as in some ways to honour the original look. I decided to fix it in place in the following manner;

1 A hardwood (oak) rod to locate and centralise

2 Spring wire in the locating rod to grip the bolt hole sides

3 Rare earth magnets to hold the piece solidly in place

Testing on the rough fit I found that the spring loaded rod or the magnets were each sufficient on their own but I decided to stick with both as it makes for a good solid fit

756023885_eng371(9).JPG.4391cb2652dad766c5db34cbe7ce2cd3.JPGRepaired, much finishing still to do 1761239270_eng371(10).JPG.a94ab37a0ac590442629cc6052465147.JPG The recut damaged checkering (first pass)

2071528228_eng371(1).JPG.04c494ed06d6c31b328893a3133cd5ba.JPG1262631826_eng371(2).JPG.309a4d711e73ccfcf327575aaaaf2b2f.JPG

Rough cut showing magnets(the ones in the piece are covered in sawdust)

1088233111_eng371(3).JPG.2b6f79db1d8b899cba5cf0b6382c53cb.JPG Shaped 994948353_eng371(4).JPG.e55b78fa9558289269be75de5546ef20.JPG

                                                                                                                              Straight cut grip lines (first pass)

1114808093_eng371(5).JPG.050ef00d6969d4fef876d7f7d7807280.JPGSpring loaded locating rod 1444597853_eng371(6).JPG.8209ad986f02de6ee5646329f6bd6691.JPG Past this point the magnets really take hold and firmly grip the piece

Still a long way to go but I am quietly hopeful that it will look ok when finished.

Edited by impala59
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Well I probably fell foul of the "rush to finish" gremlins, but nevertheless this is how it came out. Not a great colour match on the wood but maybe some more applications of Danish oil will improve it. I think I have achieved something of what I set out to do, that is, having no screw heads showing as per the original. The butt piece is securely fitted and safely locked in place, it takes a fairly hefty tug to remove it. The length of pull is a comfortable 13 3/4". Due to the colour issue I tried adding a little bling with a white plastic pinstripe so as to accent the difference rather than hide it, not really sure about that to be honest. A little work still to be done on the metal cosmetics, I will have to research methods for re-blacking the alloy receiver in due course

  1811922832_eng371(13).JPG.b29ec4d0554812f572d5f7bad1f3fd0f.JPG   1120762126_eng371(12).JPG.b821603d14d61b5f06fc8fee9bf3a632.JPG  2131349776_eng371(16).JPG.d5779ea069e2a68245f687bb5debcca9.JPG

Left right and end views

1578159906_eng371(18).JPG.af759ae5b5a1babb4b5b5234f91b8fa8.JPG  728683953_eng371(19).JPG.fb820c2bce0899126b064679bc8e45d6.JPG

With try out white layer

1506589869_eng371(8).JPG.ac11e58ed851d6474eb1094ee6fe1e76.JPG

Nice compact English, Grouse anyone?😁

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With a further look a couple of days on , I now also prefer it with the white 1mm spacer. Despite the slight colour difference which may even up with more applications, the grain will always run at 90 degrees to the stock, so happy to live with that.

a pal suggested rubbing in raw beeswax on top of the danish oil? Any thoughts gentlemen?

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11 hours ago, vampire said:

Looks good,like the oak and white.

How about a polished receiver ?

That's actually a nice idea and would save me trying to black the alloy. With a blue finish on the steel work it would have a nice contrast. Also if it looked a bit weird, the polishing would be excellent preparation for a different finish. Thank you Sir! 😀

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It was my intention to have no screws showing and the idea of using magnets came from a kitchen knife holder I made a few years ago. As Ditchman  alluded to above, these rare earth magnets are super strong, the only downside is that if they come together too rapidly, they can shatter. The wire spring loaded rod came about in order to reduce the grab of the magnets and slow the connection of the two pieces. It is something I may repeat when restoring other guns as I do like ‘no tool’ assemblies. I am sure it would work with rubber recoil pads and I have a few of those to fit over the winter

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