# A day with Parker and his Brothers



## Sharps40 (Apr 8, 2016)

Parker Brothers Number 2, 12 gauge.....made 1928.

All original...traces of color case on the action....stock broken, buttplate missing.

I must be out of my mind.  Ain't no affordable wood for this one and the average restocking price exceeds $500.  That, and the action parts are secured inside channels in the broken wood.  It occasionally doubles when firing the left barrel first......might be the broken stock cause the guts look awesome.

While the action soaks in cleaner and oil....nope I ain't taking this one apart.....but I will try to recover the buttstock.

Here we go....action screws, this one is buttmangled but I got it free.







And the dry but relatively oil free original buttstock comes out in four pieces.






A little dirt inside but not a ton and the parts are all numbers matched....stock too.  All the more reason to try to save this stock.






And then the phone rings and  I have another home showing with a real estate agent tomorrow morning, so, so much for turkey hunting in the morning...but back to the Parker......

The fit of the central wood lug that broke out.






Stock back on and the action parts in their ways within the wrist.....






Another chunk of wood laid in place.






And the outside of the wrist where it belongs....


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## Sharps40 (Apr 8, 2016)

Long dry thick and slow setting ProBed 2000.....epoxy will have to do it.  There is no room inside this wrist for cross pinning.

The lug, fitted in place, both mating edges smeared with the thin coat of epoxy and clamped.  Gotta get it just right so the parts move freely but are held in the right relationships to each other.











After kicking over several hours, not set but enough to move forward with the final pieces and clamp up......green clay in the ways within the stock.  So much easier to clean out than gobs of dried epoxy.....






Taping the edges of the split and then waxing the bare spots so clean up is easier and there is less gunk stuck in the lil diamond thingies on the grippie parts.






Smeared and clamped, here's the ooze out.....
















And before it kicks, the ooze out is cleaned out and the joints can be checked/moved as needed.


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## Sharps40 (Apr 9, 2016)

Several hours of fiddling blind to get the tip of the safety lever into the tiny slot of the safety slide......done.  Parkers cost a lot to restock....here's about $200 of the price....blind cussin 7 handed reassembly job!

Here, the safety parts in place, safety on






Safety Off.....






Safety plunger....






Not as pretty as it once was.  I'd like to cross pin it but there ain't enough room for a strong threaded pin to be epoxied in place so we'll rely on the bond.  If it breaks again, it won't be on the bond line.  The epoxy bond is stronger than the wood.  But everything fits well and the bolts pull down to a dead stop with no crush and nothing moves from a range of snug to tight on the screws.....I think we're good to go.






Some work to do with stain and a buttplate is needed and I have a clamp mark to try to steam up but, its still original and that pleases me.











Now it just needs a week to sit while we wait for a repop buttplate to arrive.


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## godogs57 (Apr 9, 2016)

I think that'll work. Good time to recut the checkering as well. I'm sure you were thinking that as well. Best of luck on your project. That ProBed is good stuff.

Love the old doubles. I shoot Elsies myself (all glass bedded...just in case).


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## Sharps40 (Apr 9, 2016)

I despise probed!    Got enough for one more job and then back to acraglas!


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## Sharps40 (Apr 9, 2016)

Cleaning up the damaged checkering with a triangular ignition file....work that is rapidly getting beyond my visual acuity.  I used to be able to checker, did a lot of impressed to cut checkering do overs in my day.  No more.....hard to see.

But.......the cuts in progress.






A clamp mark on the off side.....the worst one, but hard to avoid but should be fixable with steam.






Fire, steel and brass rods and a wet terry.....heat, dip, touch, steam, repeat.....dent comes out.






Happy joy.......the stock has its fair share of dents and scrapes but this one wasn't a keeper....not earned so to speak.






No sense in trying to stain an old stock to match up where the checkering was recut.  Instead, mimic the dirt of 94 years of use on the freshly cleaned and recut areas.  Several coats of urethane (thin, thin, thin) rubbed into the checkering with a dirty gun cleaning tooth brush (the dirtier the better).  Give it 15 minutes to start to flash.  Wipe over the tops of the diamonds while the urethane is tacky with a sharpie, immediately wipe with thumb, and scrub with the filthy (greasy, dirty, carbon and oil infused was gonna throw it away dirty type of gun cleaning toothbrush, the worst nastiest dirtiest one you can find in the junk box) toothbrush.  Repeat until slightly darker than ya want the look.  Final drop of two of that super thin urethane (Wiping Poly they call it) and scrub it in with the grubby tooth brush to level it out and knock off the shine and lighten/blend the new faux dirty spot into the real dirt in the checkering.  Done.


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## Flaustin1 (Apr 9, 2016)

You've got some talent. . . . . and patience.  Something I lack.


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## godogs57 (Apr 10, 2016)

If you don't like ProBed, have you ever tried MarineTex? That stuff is like iron. Use it a lot. I do like that Acraglass can be tinted to a wood color. Best of luck with your project....those old doubles can be a challenge.


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## Sharps40 (Apr 10, 2016)

Nope....never used anything but acraglas before the probed.  Acra is less stiff and clamps up with much less initial pressure.  Probed is like frozen toothpaste by comparison.  Very hard to work with.


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## Sharps40 (Apr 10, 2016)

Put 50 through it. Shoots well.....stock survived. The forward/right barrel still releases if the rear/left barrel is fired first. Ain't no sears for this one and that's probably what it needs. But, I ain't opening this one up for that work....should be turned over to a professional familiar with the action type. Not an unusual occurrence though....the forward/right barrel gets fired about a million to one times more than the rear/left barrel. Of course, if you double one a time or two you learn to leave the rear trigger alone till the first shot is gone!


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## TrailBlazinMan (Apr 11, 2016)

godogs57 said:


> If you don't like ProBed, have you ever tried MarineTex? That stuff is like iron. Use it a lot. I do like that Acraglass can be tinted to a wood color. Best of luck with your project....those old doubles can be a challenge.



MarineTex is great and super strong, but doesn't mimic wood bend and flex the way AcraGlas does... and cannot be dyed to match. Use AcraGlas for wood, MarineTex for composites.


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## doublebarrel (Apr 11, 2016)

Sharps 40 you are indeed a Wizard repairing guns! Bobby


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## Sharps40 (Apr 11, 2016)

....


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## Lukikus2 (Apr 11, 2016)

Beautiful work. 

I wouldn't trust it though. Good mantle piece.


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## Sharps40 (Apr 12, 2016)

Its no mantle piece.  That's a certainty.


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## Sharps40 (Apr 14, 2016)

Original buttplates were probably hard rubber....this replacement is urethane and too large.  There is only two sizes on the repop market, one too large and one too small.  So after some fitting and a bit of rub out with 0000 steel wool to take off the urethane gloss and make it look older and more like the hard rubber.....the back end is done.

I did locate a right barrel sear...used.  Its on the way.  Hopefully it will fix the weak trigger engagement on the front barrel.  If not, I'll assume it needs a hammer fix as well and perhaps refitting.  Not a job for me....at least not on this gun.

But, to the butt....


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## pine nut (May 25, 2016)

Just wondering out loud here, but have you heard or seen CPES?  It stands for clear, penetrating, epoxy, sealer.  There is a web site if you will google it.  It looks like you will be OK, but My Dad's old Parker, same gun I believe had similar stock problems and was epoxied up by a gunsmith long ago. and it has since broken again.  Come to think on it I might give that stuff a try myself.  I have used it several times, the CPES, doing house repairs and it will soak into wood following the grain lines and turn it to very hard wood.  I have a door that I literally poked a finger through before repairing and it is like steel today about ten years later.    If you are interested, look it up and look at all the different applications for it.  If you are familiar with "Git- Rot" this stuff is similar but way better.  Look at the tests of penetration comparrisons with other products and it is way better!  Looking at this buildbackalong it hit me that this might be the very thing you might want for added insurance.  It is thinner than water and doesn't swell the wood .  I would think that you could soak the stock in it a day or two and it might really strengthen your stock.  I'd be interested in your opinions about it.  I have repaired window sills. door thresholds and frames as well as fascia boards on my house.  It has saved me a lot of time and difficulty in making repairs before painting.    Hope this info helps someone else.  It is not cheap but it does go a very long way.  I believe I read it restores even deck supports to code.  It is a two part epoxy that is a slow kick so it has time to penetrate well.  Of course you only want to do only the disassembled gun and wood only.  Bill  I forgot to say I really enjoyed seeing this thread , and you did a great job! Thanks!


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## Sharps40 (May 29, 2016)

Thanks


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## Steve08 (May 29, 2016)

Sharps40 said:


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Very nice work, congrats!


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