Edward Marshall buttplate

[Curt Larsen]

I'm contemplating installing an Edward Marshall buttplate on a jaeger I'm putting together.  I've never tried this type of buttplate before.  What tips do you have on inletting the long massive tang on this buttplate.  I always find buttplates to be a pretty tedious task, but inletting one of these seems pretty daunting. All advice welcome.

Curt

[J. Talbert]

Well the actual Edward Marshall buttplate has a couple little cuts that Jim Chambers' casting does not.  I don't know whose casting you have, but that would just add to the challenge.

First prepare the buttplate well, with good uniform draft on all the top edges, and smooth transition from the top to the back.

You'll have to do some preliminary shaping of the wood on top to approximate the final shape for best results, but be careful not to get carried away.

I start by getting as good a fit on the back as possible, before starting to inlet the extension.  The back of the Marshall plate is pretty flat, making this part a little easier.  With a good soft casting you can always bend the back a little, later on,  to close minor gaps.


Finally just start inletting the top like you would an inlay and take your time working it down slowly.

It's nerve racking and tedious for me, but my results on these type plates have generally been better than I first expected.

Good Luck!

Jeff

[Acer Saccharum]

As Jeff says, prepare your metal for inletting BEFORE you begin inletting.

BP's like this get inlet toward the breech and down at the same time, so file a draft on the tang portion to accommodate that movement. Castings often have their draft made to get the waxes out of the mold, but these drafts are not always the same as the drafts needed for inletting. Same advice goes for cast trigger guards and rear thimbles. Watch your drafts, clean them up with a file to the right angles, and remove any roughness that may cause the part to pull or chip wood when going in and out of the stock during inletting.

Not the same plate, but the principals apply:


If not paying attention, it's easy to get a big gap behind the circular scrolls as you inlet a tang that varies in contour. Even if paying attention, it's easy to get a gap behind the scrolls. Go slow and think your process out before cutting wood. File your drafts right for the angle of insertion. This particular plate goes down more than toward the breech, but there is angular movement froward and down, nontheless.

[Curt Larsen]

Thanks Jeff and Tom:  The photos really help to visualize it all.  I can see how preparing the drafts lets you slide the tang into the wood as you move forward and down.  Jeff, I do have one of those BPs with the extra cuts and not the Chambers one.  I can see that it is going to take some thought and care, but I can at least give it my best.  Where do you guys place your BP screws?  Do you put one in at the top bend of the plate at an angle to hold that tang in?

[James Rogers]

Tom,
What buttplate is that in your pictures? Is it available anywhere?

James

[Acer Saccharum]

James, that is my own pattern, which I used on a jaeger. I have a bunch of them.

Thimbles and guards, too. Pictures on request.

T

[J. Talbert]

Curt,

The screw placement on the original Marshall is pretty typical of American longrifles.  The top screw is positioned an inch or so forward in the main body of the extension.  I'd guess that the plate that Tom showed has a tenon on the top extension that gets pinned, or engages a hidden screw beneath it, with the top screw located in the apex of the bend.

As far as inletting, I might add that once you start inletting the forward part of the extension where the shape is pinched in (or on Tom's, behind the curls), you pretty much are going straight down.  Any significant forward movement, (in other words anything more than can be compensated by the draft on the brass), is going to result in gaps where the wood comes back in behind the brass.  Obviously Tom's results speak for themselves, but I wouldn't describe the process as moving forward at that phase of the game.

As you said Curt... careful planning is important.

Jeff

[Curt Larsen]

Thanks Jeff:  I've got a drawing of the Edward Marshall rifle and should have looked at it before I asked about the screw.  I also can now see pretty clearly the technique you and Tom have described.  It will be a while before I have to install the BP so I have more time to study it and study it and study it before I make the first cuts.
Thanks again,
Curt

[satwel]

Acer,

My next build will most likely have a similar buttplate so I'm learning all I can about how to do it. Can you please explain what you mean by draft? I think it means the vertical edges are beveled inward so they're narrower on the bottom. But since the buttplate moves towards the breech at the same time it moves down, should the draft go in a different direction for the edges that run perpendicular to the axis of the barrel?

Thanks,
Satwel