Both butt plates warped. Mine which is heavier stands 3/16" off the wood at the toe. Ron's, the thinner one, stands 3/8" off the wood at the toe. The curve increased during the heat/quench. He is going to anneal his and try to get it back to fit his wood, which has been stained but not finished. He is going to rust blue it rather than risk the warp again.
We didn't block anything, but that was a mistake. Ron's lock plate took a bit of a warp...about 1/32" in the centre. I think he can straighten it with three blocks in his vise. He says it doesn't fit his inlet now....too tight. but that's an easy fix. I suspect it may have been from the whiskering, tannic acid wash, ferric nitrate wash and heat blush. As I said, some very minor surgery will correct that issue.
If I ever cch a butt plate again, I will make a mild steel block out of 1/2" plate and machine screw the plate to the block. In fact, I will block the lock plate and the toe plate as well. As I said earlier, our process made our parts very hard...a file does not bite at all. So I am reluctant to try to straighten my butt plate for fear of cracking it. This morning I will re-inlet it.
So we had some definite success, but have learned the hard way about blocking parts.
