Refinish a Laminated stock

[PEI Rob]

I have a Savage laminate stock a guy bedded and painted. First thing was to sand it down a bit to check its condition, starting to look good. Next is the bedding repair. If you look at the pic, you will find the bedding flows right up to the stock line and around the rear of the tang. As you can tell the color doesn't really match the grain very well. I remember him telling me that he messed the stock up a bit.

Assuming that anything under the remaining bedding is gouged, what can I do to fix this up? I did sand it quite a bit already. If I sand way down, say another 1/32" , then it MIGHT be all wood but the action would look raised up out of the stock.

 

[Rick A.]

It depends just what you want to accomplish, hide the bedding as much as possible or make it a show piece. If you want to hide it you can try Pantone Markers, or Prismacolor Markers. The colors are endless and should be no problem finding something to match the stock color then recoat with stock finish. I have used this on furniture and many other wood projects to hide flaws, then just finish as normal.

Rick

http://www.dickblick.com/products/pantone-universe-twin-markers/

 

[PEI Rob]

A poor job would not be acceptable to me but I'm not a wood or stock guy so its question time. Besides that, its amazing what some craftsmen can do and maybe someone can make this look good. Things get scratched and dented, no big deal but this is a little too much.
Maybe slotting out the sides and gluing in a sliver of hardwood? Sinking it in the stock more?

 

[Rick A.]

Ok, the pic of the French Walnut stock has a repair that I made after screwing up the pillar bedding job, glued the darn thing in and took a big chunk out of it, can ya tell what’s grain, Pantone Marker, and repair, it’s all there. It is very evident to me and taking a pic this close shows it better than just picking it up and looking at it.

The next pic is an old Remington Enfield, the stock was soaked with cleaning solvent, oil and what have you. It is a Winchester Marksman stock that had good wood except for the bedding area and not wanting to spend a ton of money on another piece of wood I removed the punky oil soaked wood from around the inletted area. When I reached the solid wood I put it back together and scribed around everything, then cut an even line (as much as possible) around it. Next it was filled with Devcon, there isn’t any metal to wood contact anywhere, I was about to color the bedding with a marker but kinda like the look as is, sometimes there are no other alternatives.
Not sure what Laminate you have but the ones that I have worked with are a pain, they do not cut clean with hand tools, no mater how sharp they are. There are other options in bedding, some can be colored.
Food for thought; if it were mine I would put it back together and scribe a line around it, take it apart and cut to that line to make it even then bed it, sand it flush and finish. AcraGlass gel can be tinted if I remember right, haven’t used that stuff in years but it would come closer to the stock color. I think you might have a worst mess gluing another piece of wood in there, very difficult to match and get it to look right unless you have some laminate the same as the stock and even then I think a wide bedding line would look better.

Just my 2 cents

Rick