thanks for the kind words, folks.
buttplate is straight from Track,... I put it in the vice, heated it, and straightened it out just a tad and also eased the heel point a little.
Metal was cold-blued, rusted, rubbed back with Scotchbrite, and repeated about 3 times. then oiled and heated till just smoking.
(I use bleach to expedite the rusting, even tho that seems to be heresy in some camps. I never understood why other chemicals (ferric nitrate, nitric acid, ferric chloride, acetic acid, etc etc) are used regularly, but somehow sodium hypochlorite developed a bad name.....
.)