I prefer to make my own escutcheon plates. Then they fit the keys/slides perfectly, are a shape I can live with, and also fit the screws I have for attachment. I use 1/16" thick steel sheet for these, and have a template that I use to begin the shaping process. In this case, when I made my last Hawken rifle, knowing I had another soon after to build, I made all the plates for the two rifles at the same time, saving time later, and making a tedious job less so in the long run.
This is a picture heavy item, so I'll likely do it in a couple of installments. I first started by cutting a strip of steel from the larger sheet with the band saw, and then cut the individual pieces to length from it. A coating of lay-out blue ink allows one to trace a template and get them fairly uniform right off the get-go. I clamped the template over each of the pieces and traced the outline and screw holes with a sharp scribe. Here's some images to help explain this step.
In that last picture, you can see the commercial escutcheon I used for the template. It has roughly the right shape, but the slot for the key is totally wrong. I'll try to explain how I improved the shape of these escutcheons in due course.
Here, I have scribed a line through the centre line of the plates, simply bisecting the screw holes.
Having already filed and polished the keys to 180 grit, I laid the key across the plate and marked the width of the slot to be cut. Then I centre punched three times along the centre line so that the outside holes will be within the margin for the key. Using a drill bit that is a few thou less than the thickness of the key, I drilled all five holes in each plate. I enlarged the screw holes as I got to that stage, and cut the countersink for the heads. When I cut the countersink, I set the drill press quill stop so that i got perfectly uniform countersinks. I amke the countersinks a little shallow of the screws's head so that there is metal to file away to bring them flush with the escutcheon pate at the finishing stage.
Although this picture is misleading, you'll see that all the holes in the support board are at the edge. That's because I used a pair of vise-grip pliers to hold the plates for drilling. If you elect to use just your fingers to secure the plate, you'll end up with shorter fingers by the time you get them all done.
To trim the extra metal away, I clamped one handle of a pair of metal shears in my vise, and easily cut away the waste steel.
Here, I am cutting away the metal between the holes with a jeweller's saw. Careful to stay within the lines. Also, the outside metal has been ground and filed away to leave the approximate finished shape of the escutcheon.
Must break for lunch...more to come.
OK: I'll finish up this bit on escutcheon plates. Once the webs between the holes is cut away with the jeweller's saw, the slot is finished with filed so that the keys slide through nicely. Remember that the purpose of the escutcheon plates is simply to protect the wood around the key. It is not to provide friction to hold the barrel in the stock...that job is performed by the wood to metal fit within the stock itself. Reproduction efforts by Italian, Spanish, and American manufacturers miss this point, and their plates do all the work.
The second to last job before inletting these escutcheon plates, is to file the 'draft' onto the edges. I coat the edges of the plates with a felt pen, clamp it in the vise and file a gentle angle, removing just the black ink, and without disturbing the shape of the plates. All inlays are treated in this manner, so that as you remove wood from the edges of the inlet to drop the inlay into its mortise, the inlay becomes tighter and tighter, eliminating any spots where you may have removed too much wood...that's the theory anyway. This filing is best done while the plates are flat...easier to hold in the vise that way.
The surface of the stock where these inlays will go is not flat...it has a subtle convex curve. Many builders miss this point and create a forestock that is referred to as "slab sided". Wood must be removed from the stock to within almost a knife edge at the barrel channel - not much more than 1/16" of a flat. To shape the curve into the escutcheon plates I use a four inch length of three inch diameter steel rod, which approximates the curvature of the stock, and a little plate if 1/4" thick steel I bent around this bar to duplicate that curve. I simply place the escutcheon plate on the big bar, countersinks up, place the 1/4" thick sheet over it, and strike it once with a hammer. The plate instantly takes on the curve of the bar. A tiny bit of filing may be required in the slots so that the key will pass, as curving the plate, even this small amount, will close the slot on the inside of the curve. Now the plates are ready for inletting into the stock.
To begin inletting, install the key through a plate and slip it into the forestock. The barrel should be in the stock during this process so the key is doing it's work. Trace around the escutcheon plate with a sharp pencil, then remove the key and plate and with a variety of chisels and knives, inlet the plate. I use two different sweeps, a 1/4" gouge, and a 1/8" flat chisel for this work, as well as a short bladed 'chip' knife with a good thin point. I find Exacto blades to be too flexible, but the shape of a # 11 is right.
I inlet the plate until it is almost flush with the surface of the stock, leaving just a bit to file off flush with the surface when the screws have been installed. In this shot, you can see the countersink holes have been centre punched for the drilling of the screw holes.
This image shows the screws run in...sometimes the heads of these little screws are not perfectly formed. To make them perfectly formed and to ensure that the slots are deep enough to accommodate the filing or dressing down to the wood, I often swage the screw's heads in a plate that I have prepared by drilling a clearance hole and countersink, inserting a screw and hammering it into the countersink. Then I recut the slot with a hack saw blade from which I have removed the set on both sides. This image is a little out of focus, unfortunately. My apologies.
I usually inlet both the plates for a Hawken rifle on one side before I flip the rifle over, and do the other side. the other side is done exactly the same way I did these: slide the key through the plate, slip it into the stock, trace, inlet, screw it down, dress it off.
There - another job done. Now, the toe plate...
