Snakeoil
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd post this here in case others with this rifle might have a crack or cracks waiting to appear.
On Wed at the club, when I took my High Wall out of the rack to go home, I felt something funny on the fore end and looked closely to find it was crack one the left side from the Schnabel end back about 1-1/2 inches towards the receiver. The finish was cracked away where the crack was.
I spent the last couple of days repairing the crack and the finish. Then today, I thought it would be a good idea to check the other side. And I found what looked like a tiny crack in that same area on the right side on the Schnabel end. I had to put a 10x loupe on it to see it clearly. If I pushed from the inside out, the crack would open up. It was not thru to the outside yet. So, I fixed that side so it would not grow.
Below is a photo of my fore end, looking at it from the muzzle end. The arrow points to the sharp corner where the crack started. The thin yellow line traces where the crack was on that side. The crack on the other side was in the same place, only not thru. The crack runs right down that corner, following the grain. You’ll never see it on the inside because the grain hides it.
I'm thinking that it might be wise to clean the inner surface of the fore end well and then do a very thin layer of fiberglass to strengthen the area. I'm talking about a glass cloth or carbon fiber that would be like a nylon wind breaker fabric to maintain the clearance. But it might work as well to simply soak the wood with thin epoxy resin like Git Rot to make it less prone to crack/split.
That sharp corner is a stress riser. The walnut is very straight grained. I tend to think that because the for end is floating, if you put the gun down hard on a rest hitting the side rather than the bottom of the fore end, it drives it into the barrel because the metal cantilever it is fixed to is very flexible. Get a magnifying glass or better yet a high power loupe and take a close look at the Schnabel end. It cracks from the inside corner (arrow) towards the outside. So yours could be cracked, but not coming thru to the outside yet. If you have a crack, easy fix is to carefully flex the crack open a tiny amount and flood the area with superglue. Let it close up and see if the glue oozes out the front where you can see the crack on the Schnabel. If so, put pressure on it to cure the glue. Then run down that sharp inside corner again with the superglue to let it get into the wood. It should prevent the crack from growing. It should actually make it stronger than it was before.
On Wed at the club, when I took my High Wall out of the rack to go home, I felt something funny on the fore end and looked closely to find it was crack one the left side from the Schnabel end back about 1-1/2 inches towards the receiver. The finish was cracked away where the crack was.
I spent the last couple of days repairing the crack and the finish. Then today, I thought it would be a good idea to check the other side. And I found what looked like a tiny crack in that same area on the right side on the Schnabel end. I had to put a 10x loupe on it to see it clearly. If I pushed from the inside out, the crack would open up. It was not thru to the outside yet. So, I fixed that side so it would not grow.
Below is a photo of my fore end, looking at it from the muzzle end. The arrow points to the sharp corner where the crack started. The thin yellow line traces where the crack was on that side. The crack on the other side was in the same place, only not thru. The crack runs right down that corner, following the grain. You’ll never see it on the inside because the grain hides it.
I'm thinking that it might be wise to clean the inner surface of the fore end well and then do a very thin layer of fiberglass to strengthen the area. I'm talking about a glass cloth or carbon fiber that would be like a nylon wind breaker fabric to maintain the clearance. But it might work as well to simply soak the wood with thin epoxy resin like Git Rot to make it less prone to crack/split.
That sharp corner is a stress riser. The walnut is very straight grained. I tend to think that because the for end is floating, if you put the gun down hard on a rest hitting the side rather than the bottom of the fore end, it drives it into the barrel because the metal cantilever it is fixed to is very flexible. Get a magnifying glass or better yet a high power loupe and take a close look at the Schnabel end. It cracks from the inside corner (arrow) towards the outside. So yours could be cracked, but not coming thru to the outside yet. If you have a crack, easy fix is to carefully flex the crack open a tiny amount and flood the area with superglue. Let it close up and see if the glue oozes out the front where you can see the crack on the Schnabel. If so, put pressure on it to cure the glue. Then run down that sharp inside corner again with the superglue to let it get into the wood. It should prevent the crack from growing. It should actually make it stronger than it was before.
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