‘Scuse me David - didn’t mean to offend.





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Yeah, that is the downfall of many of the blended and painted over extensions is that movement of the wood causes the glue joint to become visible over time. Plus most of those faux finishes look like plastic anyway.

Definitely bite the bullet and have it restocked. There are some great craftsmen out there, and examples of their work abound. Years ago (c. 1990) we rescued a horribly abused BHE 16 ga. 28" DT PG SFE whose stock had been cut, planed, recut, built up, filed down, and for a final insult had a Morgan adjustable pad installed!

That was the bad news; the good news was that the gun had magnificent engraving, unaltered chokes and chambers, pristine barrels inside and lots of original finish outside, decent case colors left and best of all, everything worked. We went for a total restock and FE restoration, paid the big bucks for correct production era (c. 1919) Circassian walnut blank(s) and insisted on period-correct stock sculpting (no fat Fleur-de-Lis "fingers" or flush cheek panels!). The result was a magnificent restoration of the gun to its former glory, complete with detailed engraved SKBP.

In a more poetic license, it became "A thing of beauty and a joy forever. GO FOR IT!

Isn't it fun to try and help someone else to spend money!! :rotf:

My favorite past time is spending other peoples money.

When I made my post I was simply trying to point out that there is a whole range of solutions to most problems. The comb is terrible. By far the cheapest on that stock is cut the existing comb out and replace with a closely matching piece. In the stock repair world it is the easiest and lowest cost decision. It may become more visible down the road but that will be another problem at another time. Many people may be happy with it. More importantly it followed the medical philosophy of "do no harm", or at least the minimum. The butt transplant would most likely be the next most costly and likely last longer. A new stock would be the most ost costly with no originality left. You pay your money and make the choice.

I will make one comment on the glue issue. I have joined hundreds of 0.10 inch pieces of wood near 2 feet long with hot hide glue or high performance wood glue and then used them in structures subject to bending forces of several hundreds of pounds with no failure . These joints are absolutely invisible. They stay that way. This is with highly figured wood . The key is fitting it so closely there is nothing to see. The reason I brought up the patch is because of location and shape of the inletted piece. From what I can see in the pictures it would be simple to cut the offending section out on a milling machine and leave a perfectly flat surface. After finding a closely grain matched replacement, it could be milled or planed perfectly flat on the mating side and joined with a couple of small biscuits and I guarantee that you would never see the joint (which is not the same as the differential grain of the patch). It would likely be better to replace the entire comb than the front 80 per cent.

In either a patch or a butt transplant the transparency of the job, assuming good workmanship, depends on the grain match.

Think of it as a form of investment counseling; in this case we spent $2250 on the gun, close to $3K on the restock, then sold the gun 9 years later for $10K.

Forgot about passing it down ect. If you like the gun, it is a great opportunity to make a fine shooter that is fit to you!
Life is short. Use the good China!

Edgar, do not think it was one of mine, Gary

I did a search trying to find the previous thread, and found the one where Brian had done this exact job on a lesser grade gun.

https://parkerguns.org/forums/showth...utt+transplant

For a gun of such beauty that a BH is, it would be just what I would do.