So, there are still a few of these very early Type 56 SKS's floating around on the whole sale market. I picked one up on sale before Christmas. It came slathered in cosmoline (as expected) but the metal looked excellent. The stock however, had a pretty giant crack in it. Two cracks in fact. One diagonal down the right side above the trigger and one vertically in the wrist at the back edge of the receiver. My first inclination was to just toss it and find a decent replacement. I realize that would be the sensible thing to do, cheap, fast and easy. After cleaning it up though, I decided I really liked the "battle worn" look. Im a sucker for a project, and being the dead of winter I figured why not dive in. This would be a great "low risk" opportunity to teach myself some stock repair techniques. This thread on NES gave me a good start. https://www.northeastshooters.com/v...ack-Repair-Step-by-Step?highlight=stock+crack
This is how she arrived. Coated in cosmoline....nice big crack. The crack is actually worse than it looks. This crack and the second crack at the rear of the receiver actually intersect inside the stock at some compound angles.
I got everything cleaned up as good as possible. Then I ground back the surfaces that mate with the rear of the receiver and drilled several holes directly down into the cracks. I used a 2" long needle of similar diameter to inject epoxy to the deepest point in the cracks. I spread the cracks open and forces epoxy in until it was oozing out everywhere. I also cross drilled the rear crack and installed a brass screw to reinforce and pull it together.
After letting the epoxy dry I came in and tried my hand at "bedding" the rear portion of the stock. I did this partially to tighten the action but more so to tie the rear of the stock together and add reinforcement. It worked great. The stock is probably stronger than ever.
Next step. I drilled one shallow hole in addition to the hole for the brass screw. The large side crack split into two smaller cracks at this point. My thought was to epoxy a plug in to prevent the crack from continuing.
Last step. I applied a couple light coats of reddish-brown stain, couple coats of boil linseed and.....DONE. Im totally proud of how it came out. The cracks closed up nicely and it is incredibly strong. I think visually this fits much better than a new glossy looking replacement stock. Its a solid, functional shooter that looks good too.
Cheers
This is how she arrived. Coated in cosmoline....nice big crack. The crack is actually worse than it looks. This crack and the second crack at the rear of the receiver actually intersect inside the stock at some compound angles.
I got everything cleaned up as good as possible. Then I ground back the surfaces that mate with the rear of the receiver and drilled several holes directly down into the cracks. I used a 2" long needle of similar diameter to inject epoxy to the deepest point in the cracks. I spread the cracks open and forces epoxy in until it was oozing out everywhere. I also cross drilled the rear crack and installed a brass screw to reinforce and pull it together.
After letting the epoxy dry I came in and tried my hand at "bedding" the rear portion of the stock. I did this partially to tighten the action but more so to tie the rear of the stock together and add reinforcement. It worked great. The stock is probably stronger than ever.
Next step. I drilled one shallow hole in addition to the hole for the brass screw. The large side crack split into two smaller cracks at this point. My thought was to epoxy a plug in to prevent the crack from continuing.
Last step. I applied a couple light coats of reddish-brown stain, couple coats of boil linseed and.....DONE. Im totally proud of how it came out. The cracks closed up nicely and it is incredibly strong. I think visually this fits much better than a new glossy looking replacement stock. Its a solid, functional shooter that looks good too.
Cheers
