Enfield No.4 Hairline Cracks

[greggordon52]

This No.4 Mk.1 came to me by way of Century Arms in the mid 1990s. It was pretty, despite mismatched wood, and had (still has) a nice bore but it never shot that well. So it languished, unused until Covid sparked a new interest in me. So much for the backstory.

I now have disassembled it and find hairline cracks in the forend butt where it meets the stock and at the front trigger screw. Here is where my questions begin:
-Are these cracks in the forend’s butt a problem? I.E., do I need to fix them?
I have read elsewhere that there is very little force spreading the wood in that
Spot so they can be ignored. If they do need repair, how? Wick in CA glue or
pass through a brass pin or dowel with epoxy?
-I assume the crack at the trigger screw (king screw) will have to be repaired.
Wick CA glue and clamp? Brass pin or dowel and epoxy?
-I suspect that cracks labeled 1 & 2 are actually just one crack that runs beneath
the tie strap and that I will have to remove the tie strap. To me the tie strap
looks like one of those things that is easy to remove but fiendishly difficult to
replace. Any thoughts?
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Information

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[Surpmil]

Well I suppose I'll go first then: 'wouldn't worry about the crack that probably runs more or less vertically through the back of the forend as the strap will prevent that going any further horizontally and vertical spreading would be pretty unlikely once the forend is sandwiched between the guard and the bottom of the receiver.

The crack on the lower right is a different matter, and that one should/could be drilled and dowelled from inside the slot the guard sits in.

Am not aware of any glue that works on oily wood, albeit a vegetable oil, but there may be something others know of. So, do you want to get into the finish removal that cleaning the oil out/off would require? If not, drill the holes, use a strong dowel (I'd use bamboo myself, from chopsticks), some epoxy and call it good.

There's one take on it and you will no doubt receive others!

[CINDERS]

A very experienced person who will eventually return to the fold has stated with gluing these stocks is to clean all traces of the oil from the stock and to use aircraft grade epoxy as the glue, what wood you use is up to you but an oak dowel or as Surpmil suggested. Search cleaning stocks you'll find all the info for that part and also fixing splits in stocks should be scads of information in there.
Other stock repairers are undoubtably going to come along and offer their experiences with fixing these maladies you have with your stock.

[Frank46]

I've used acetone to degrease the wood on a Ishapore #4 mk1 as the draws were mush. Had some 1/2" oak I had bought for a project and cut the damaged wood from both sides of the trigger slot from top to where the trigger guard goes. Degreased again and used JB clear weld epoxy plus some 1/8 dowels I managed to find at our local wally world. Drilled 1/8" holes on either side of the stock from the outside till the drill broke the surface of the oak piece. And roughened them up and they got the JB weld treatment. Let sit for a couple days to make sure the epoxy sets up. Trimmed both dowels and used Min Wax cherry and ebony oil based stain mixed in a pill bottle. Now all I have to do is replace the wood where the draws are. They will get pieces of oak glued in place and possibly the 1/8" dowel treatment. Right now my garage gets over 110 degrees due to the heat wave here in Louisiana. After 5 minutes in there even with both doors opened I'm soaking wet. This has been a funny season. First we got the cold snap. 20 degrees then 13 degrees. Then one day its spring. Set records for both temp and amounts of rain. Still no local ranges open due to covid and now with the delta variant they look to be closed for a good long time. Stay safe everyone. Frank