Steaming a stock

[Winter Hawk]

The new-to-me 3rd T-C Pennsylvania Hunter had a problem: I had to lift my head off the stock to line up the sights.  I had thought about putting some type of pad on the comb, but then remembered reading long ago about steaming the stock to alter it.  So, I put on a large pan of water to boil, lay the wrist of the stock over it, covered the stock and pan with aluminum foil to seal the steam in, lay a folded towel over top of that and let it sit on the burner for, IIRC, 30 minutes:

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I then clamped it in my Workmate vice and tightened that down as tight as I could get it:

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and left it overnight.  The next day I reassembled the rifle and it formed the stock enough that I can keep a good cheek weld.

A word of caution: I should have put a block between the vice jaws and the the stock at the tang.  It broke a small piece of wood off the inlet for the tang.  I didn't notice that until I was putting it together again, and by that time the sliver had disappeared in my garage/shop.

Otherwise this worked well for me.

~Kees~

[PetahW]

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Not for the faint of heart - nice work ! 

[Hank in WV]

Did it affect the finish at all? I've steamed raw wood before, but never finished wood.

[Winter Hawk]

Did it affect the finish at all? I've steamed raw wood before, but never finished wood.

Yes it did. The portion which was over the pot is noticeably darker than the rest, sort of like it got a sun tan with the ends covered.  But it doesn't look bad so I'm leaving it as is.

~Kees~