Is there a "best" glue to use for ebony. I need to glue a piece of ebony onto a walnut stock. It seems I read somewhere that it needs some prep and not all glues will work. Can someone help me out here. I am inletting the piece.

i use black dyed epoxy and a 1/4 wooden dowelpin

Mate your gluing surfaces as square as possible. Color you accuglass "black". Apply to both surfaces. Put it in a stock jig and let stand over night. Shape and inlet. Once inleted mill a 1/4 x 1" slot in the barrel channel and insert a piece of ebony with colored glass, let set and reshape to the barrel channel. The mortice is very a "classy" touch for a custom job. Dowelling works however I prefer the mortice method.

One important thing with the exotic oily woods -many people including me use something like acetone to clean the surface to be glued, so the glue sticks well.

I used dowels for the first couple, but have since switched to 1 - 1.25" pieces of 1/4 stainless steel threaded rod; I usually use two, and use brass dowel markers (used for edge joining pieces of wood with dowels) to line up where to drill the holes. I make the holes a little oversized, and the last time I did one I also carefully ran a coarse tap into the hole to roughen it up. I also use a dremel tool with a sanding drum to hollow out the center part of the end of the forearm where I will glue the ebony, to make sure it butts tightly where it will be seen. Then use black acraglass. I don't do any shaping of the block, just leave it as a rectangle / square. Then, with the aid of a tapered wedge to make the butt end of the stock and the end of the ebony block parallel, I use a band clamp or, if you have them available, and extra long soft pad furniture clamp to hold the ebony block tightly on the end of the stock while the epoxy dries.

I wish I had a picture of the set up, hard to describe but very simple and easy to visualize.

TG

Epoxy and a bar clamp.

I clean off the wood acetone or other degreaser and then glue it with black dyed acraglass.
I use a dowel and either drill a releif hole perpendicular to the dowel hole to release any hydraulic pressure that a tight fitting dowel and glue might build up, or make sure that the dowel is grooved and/or has space before and behind for extra glue to go............................DJ

Thanks, looks like acraglas is the choice. Having never worked with ebony was not sure. I apprecate the help.

gee, thats funny. I helped my brother put a piece of ebony on a stock of his about 15 years ago with some elmer's white glue and a bunge cord. Its still there.

22WRF,
That stuff is very good glue if you can properly clamp it. I use it for furniture making and it's stronger that the wood being joined....but only on good fits and good clamping so it is pushed into the wood pores.

When I attach ebony, I use epoxy and a cleaner....acetone is good.

At one of Pete Grisel's stock making classes a couple of years ago we attached ebony tips with 2 wood dowels and carpenter's water proof wood glue. We put the whole assembly between the headstock and tailstock on a lathe for an hour.

I use 2 grooved wooden dowls and black acra glass, and drill two holes in ebony and two in the stock. Then drill four small holes 90 degrees so excess expoxy can excape or more can be added. Clamp it down with a home made clamp using two pieces of all thread and to metal sliders in between, just screw down until bond is snug.

Thanks to Vapodog sending me a piece of ebony I salvaged my mistake. It pays to have the vise tight when milling. I was able to inlet this piece of ebony and fitted the sling swivel. It should not look to bad when I darken the stock, at least it won't jump out at you. I will change out the screws when I am done sanding

Rolland....I'm not sure the piece I sent you is large enough but the front swivel should be done the same way......

BTW.....your salvage job looks real good to me!!!

Rolland, that looks like a classy intentional upgrade on the mounts. Perhaps you should make those kind of mistakes more often?

Looks great!

I think I recall some famous stockmaker saying something along the lines of

"The difference between a good stockmaker and an excellent stockmaker is that the excellent one knows how to hide his mistakes better."

John

To be real honest with ya, it looks like an added touch and i agree the front should look the same. Can the stock be set back up and jump out of vise exzactly like you did the first time... I LIKE IT!

heh, i build 99% bigbores... the "front" should be on the barrel!

The forearm on the stock is pretty short for a swivel, I am building a 7 X 57 very simular to what Rigby called the High Velocity it has a 24 inch barrel so in keeping with the design the swivel needs to go on the barrel the barrel is marked 275 Rigby.
But I am not done yet so anything is possible. I do like the look altho it is nerve racking to do inletting like that.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to put in my $ .0025 worth of input sooner .

When ever joining wood or plastic or ? dissimilar materials . Always use a Laminating type of Epoxy . Wipe back with a a solvent so as to remove oil or other surface contaminates . Next either spline or dowel a joint or at least rough up the surface with an abrasive . The rougher the better . This allows the Adhesive or epoxy to Grip both surfaces and really hold on .

Resorcinol adhesive is Best for joining wood and is nearly black or real dark purple when mixed correctly .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...