any tips on refinishing or repairing a laminate stock?

[BradZ]

I have this really nice looking camo laminate stock I bought years ago and never got time to inlet and get it bedded till recently. It's been through a couple moves and been packed away for years, I broke it out today and it's got a chip in the wood below the barrel channel on the right side and a couple small scratches in the end cap. Was wondering if there's a good way to repair and refinish these things.

I can remember being told that the wood on laminates doesn't take standard oil finishes, though I don't know if that's true I thought I"d look into ideas.

 

[Ghillie man]

True oil works good on laminate stocks. I don't no how to fix the chip other than sanding it away. I just refinished one of mine about 25 coats of true oil then buffed it out with polishing compound and it looks great

 

[BradZ]

Cool I'll try that that, that's what I've used on regular wood, I was just told it wouldn't work.

Thanks

 

[Ghillie man]

I did it on 3different laminate stocks and worked great on all 3

 

[Unknown]

If you have little chips and/or cracks in wood, an old trick is to use liquid super glue... you sand the stock to get some of the wood dust built up, then jam that wood dust into the crack and use a little line/bead of super glue. The wood dust will absorb the super glue, and because you used wood the color of the stock, it usually just looks like a little dark streak in the wood. Depending on how large the chip is, you might have to slowly build it up bit by bit.

I have used this technique on lots of wood knife handles, and other wood projects I worked on.

I saw one wood worker who took ground up Lapis Lazuli, and malachite with super glue in wood that had a lot of voids in it. He made the pieces into jewelry boxes, and it looked fabulous. Crushed up Lapis or malachite would be stuffed into the voids, and topped off with a super glue like epoxy, then sanded smooth.

 

[BradZ]

Man that's perfect, its a camo laminate so if that trick works the dark streak womt even be noticeable.

Thanks very much

 

[Bubb]

For a small chip or ding. Try dripping water on it till you get some in the grain. Then a wet wash cloth over it and press iron on steam over wash cloth. Heat and steam will raise the grain push out the dent....

 

[lash]

Both [MENTION=28934]Unknown[/MENTION] and [MENTION=14316]Bubb[/MENTION] have posted good ideas that are used in regular woodworking repairs by many. I have ironed out scratches and dents in furniture before and I have used the sawdust and glue method for small digs.

If a chip is very large, you may have to resort to finding a piece of similar wood with grain to match what is in the stock, cut, glue, shape and sand, then refinish. Not an easy repair, but doable and if done carefully it can be unnoticeable.

 

[pawprint2]

One of the best places to get some saw dust, or a small piece is under the butt pad. Using a hot iron works well, if you can heat up a piece of iron, and use it on top of a wet cloth, you can usually get into areas an electric iron won't reach. A few minutes with a file, you'll be able to shape your "hot iron" thus allowing you to do the spots in question. Good luck!