Inlettting pistol butt cap w/long ears

[wet willy]

How do you experts go about inletting a pistol butt cap with long ears like an 18th century dragoon? See an example: http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/pair-of-continental-flintlock-horsemans-ah2859/

I think the ears must follow the center of the grip and align with the end of the lock panel, but how to start the inletting process? Clearly need to cut off the butt to get a square start, but then what?

The originals I've seen had a bulb end, larger than the butt cap, and much larger than the wrist, yet the ears compressed nicely fit the wrist. The wood tapered down to meet the butt cap.

The butt cap is larger than the wrist, so how do you get the ears to lay flat against the grip, other than major bending, somehow after the butt has been inletted. I read most originals had a small tab at the end of the ears to tuck into a slot to keep them in place.

[Dave B]

Here is a short post that asked the same question with the simple solution. http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=17392.0
I had assumed that the wood was shaped to match the under side of the cap to a certain extent un till I took an original apart. its not so over whelming if you approche it this way.

[Jim Kibler]

I think it's safe to say that some pistols had buts cut relatively flat before inletting a cap and others didn't.  Also, if the sprus are thin enough they can be bent out while inletting the cap and then pushed in and inlet near the end.  Sometimes these are pretty thick though and this isn't practical.  In this case, slots must be cut as the cap is inlet and it is fit in place.  It's a tedious process regardles.

[Dave B]

Here's what it looks like in place

[Long John]

I have made one such pistol and it didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

As Jim said, some time you can bend the spurs out to facilitate letting in the cap.  Be careful.  I ended up with brass castings that were just too brittle, regardless of how much I annealed, and had to deal with broken spurs and then trying to let in a new replacement butt cap casting into a mortise cut for a broken and unrepairable part.

I ended up tracing the spur profile on each side where I wanted it to go. I filed a draft on the spur and cleaned up the pin on the end of each spur that goes into a hole drilled into the stock that keeps the end of the spur in the wood.  Drill that hole at a downward angle so it draws the spur down into the stock.  The outlines of the spur mortice were made narrower than the finished part and widened with scrapers as the part was let in.  I then used the cut-a-little-and-try method to slowly move the butt cap onto the butt from the back, sliding up the curved spur mortices.  The butt largely fills the interior of the butt cap - it is not cut flat. As Jim said, long and tedious process!




I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[fm tim]

At Dixon's one year, Mark Wheland suggested annealing the casting - if possible - then bending the ears out and inletting just the actual butt part.  Then slowly anneal, bend the ears back, inlet and repeat until the ears are where you want them.

[Dave B]

John I like your pistol. How long is your barrel? What is the caliber? Where did you get your castings? I have been working more off than on on a Georgian pistol using rifle shop castings. The butt cap was soft enough to open up the tangs and inlet just the but then bring the tangs down. You don't have to bend them out much I took them out far enough that they scored the surface of the wood of the rough shaped butt stock. This gave a distinct point for tracing with a Exacto blade where the inlet needed to be. doing it this way did require the reduction of the area at the rim of the cap cutting a channel in the line of the tang to let the slender section of the tangs to slide into the sides of the grip. One of these days I will get around to finishing this. I have too many projects ahead of it for now.

[Long John]

Dave,

The barrel is 12 inches long, 54 caliber, to match my rifle.  It was obtained from MBS.  I will not divulge the source of the castings as they were of inferior brass, very brittle and would just not anneal.  The trigger was hand forged and the ram rod pipes home made from sheet stock.  The lock is a small Siler kit converted to a 1740's French bridleless frizzen design.






I learned a lot from the build!  I really started to get the hang of engraving on this one so it was a watershed project for me.

Get QUALITY castings if you plan to bend the spurs.  If the zinc content of the brass getss too low it becomes impossibly brittle and won't anneal.  I learned that the hard way.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[Dave B]

Castings can be a PITA if they are hard. I had a butt plate I thought I could peen. It was rock hard so I got out the tourch to anneal the part and  it cracked into  multiple webs on both sides of the plate. I reordered and the next one was dead soft no issues I guess if you take a punch to small section of the casting where it not conspicuous you can find out if its hard or no. I like the castings I have gotten from Reaves G as well as TRS.  The original pistol I posted has a formed butt cap from a blank of brass. You can see the peen marks inside the cap.