Restock of a Trojan

[B. Dudley]

Yeah, that forend might be toast to repair it correctly. It is so buggard up that getting a clean flat top job will be impossible. If it was an isolated pattern with full borders, you could maybe spot sand it down enough to do something with it, but the pattern goes all the way to the metal, so you can't. Personally, if you wanted to make it look better, I would just recut a fully pointed pattern on it. That would cover up all the mistakes, provided the bad lines don't steer you off course. Doing that would at least look better than what you have now, even if it is not correct.

And honestly, even though a square cutter is proper for that english style flat top checkering, if you us a 60 degree V cutter and do not go too deep. Not many will know the difference.

[Toothsmith]

Thanks for the input gentlemen. I agree the forend is probably too far gone but I've used several methods to "grow" old wood to cover proud metal in the past and there's one I haven't tried yet that might work on this one. I'll keep you posted. I prefer to use the original wood if at all possible. Old english guns are usually stocked very close to the metal with no proud wood at all. Here's one in a little better condition, check out the contour of the transition from the forend to the forend iron to the receiver. How'd you like to have to restock this one Brian?