Over a year ago, I shared pictures and questions about a new school rifle I had recently gotten. This is a link to the original thread:

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In it, I showed pictures of the front of the stock and the poorly fitted front band. I had a lot of great comments and advice about what I had and the front band especially from Butlersrangers who taught me the importance of proper fit and finish of official armory work that we should be seeing with a Krag. I was new to Krag collecting and did not understand this at the time. I spent a lot of time reading old posts and looking at lots of Krags in references and ones I have collected since then.

It looks like my school rifle had a proper cutdown front stock but someone force fit an unaltered band over the end of the stock with the filler piece and severely damaged the wood. The broken stock was glued poorly and sold in the condition that I showed in the original post pictures.

I could not find a replacement school rifle front band that fit the barrel at that section, which has different dimensions from the normal front band. An altered front band is mandrel shaped to fit the barrel properly.

So, I have slowly, in my spare time, worked each aspect of this school rifle's damaged front stock to recreate the correct pieces for a nice repair. I did use a mandrel, which was actually an old damaged barrel, and made a beautifully fitting band, got a nice old piece of walnut floor board and recreated the damaged piece of the front of the stock, with a correct filler piece, and glued them together. Then I refinished the wood the best I could to try to match the original finish.

Following are pictures of stages of the job. It wasn't easy doing the fine fitting work to be aware of the quality of fit and finish Butlersrangers pointed out it should have.

My school rifle looks tons better. Thanks a bunch to all who gave me good advice!!

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More pictures:

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More pictures:

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More pictures:

Note the slightly beveled bayonet lug to fit the proper 1903 Springfield bayonet which the school rifles were originally designed to use. I tried to make this authentic and proper but the repair is obvious and I will never sell this (if ever) by trying to say it is original. I just like having it look better.

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thank you.

Nice work Whig. That’s kinda what i did on my 1903 Springfield build. When I cut the stock back three inches to match up to the 3 inch shorter bbl there was a lightening cut there. I used a small 3/4 in piece of the cut off solid stock to hide the lightening cut with the seam hidden by the front bbl band. The end piece is glued and pinned to the stock and block inside of the lightening cut. The cross screw goes through the repairs and the original stock.

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Definitely a labor of love for Krags! It was a lot of time and effort. I'm sure lots of others have done similar work as good as or better than what I did.

Thanks.

Nice restoration Whig!

EXCELLENT workmanship, but I have to ask, WHY on earth did you go cross-grain, and then cross-grain again, like a parquet floor?

Real original end grains (both stocks and plugs where installed) will soak up stain, oil, dirt, etc. to where they just look "dark", almost varnished.

Sorry to be negative, but at my advanced age, I calls 'em like I sees 'em, and am TRULY puzzled at your choice.

When I was doing this, I had no thought of grain pattern for two reasons. One is that I have never done this before and just didn't consider it. I'm not a wood craftsman to any degree. First time for this kind of job. Second is that I am adding layers of linseed oil and other coatings of grease and oil to fill up the grain like most of my other Krags that will do as you point out to make it dark and "varnished" and not have the grain visible.

If it was easy, I would do it all over again and watch that. But, the end result will be much better than it was!

Thanks for the critique.

Whig
Very nice restore work.  Dang, and a first time!
I wasn't smart enough to catch the cross-grain.  Ha
Vic

A neat strong repair is OK in my eyes. There is clearly no intent to deceive.

Thanks. I know some small details I would do differently next time but the original condition was deplorable. I appreciate Dick's comment about the grain except I have to admit the Parquet flooring somewhat predates my personal flooring experience, so, I had to look it up.

I actually like the look of the Parquet floor!

But, thanks, Dick, for treating me like one of the family. When I'm 30 years or so older, I'm sure I'll be looking extra careful at those details.  Ha!

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Glad you took it in good spirit as I did not intend to be in ANY way mean; the workmanship is flawless, and certainly an improvement. I was just stunned by the grain aspect, and could not help expressing my surprise.

Thanks.

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'Whig', if that picture is you, we will call your School Rifle a Mouse Gun!!

I HEAR ya!

Sorry, no mouse gun in my house.

I did some linseed oil, grease, oil and heat treatment to the front of the stock.

Does it look better, now, Dick? No Parquet look anymore.

You reminded me about a comment Wayne Novak made to me years ago when I was shooting and collecting vintage 1911s. He said "Pay attention to the details."

Never have forgotten that and you have reminded me. Makes a big difference in old military firearms including Krags!

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Not totally invisible, but it looks MUCH better!! ;)

I like the fit of your 're-shaped' front barrel-band to the wood and barrel contour.

Now, we need a range report!

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Thanks. I gave it that rough "aged" look. I think it looks as good as S.A. would have done. But, I'm biased!

Gotta wait a bit for the snow and ice to melt before getting out on the range. I've got a Romanian PSL with a new Russian 10x scope to test out also.

Not as fun as the Krags, though!