How to Straighten bent buttplate at toe

[Shreckmeister]

Can I safely straighten a bent butt plate by heating and forming?

[smylee grouch]

Cast or forged? Brass/steel?

[Dave B]

It will make a difference as to what the brass is. It may be silica bronze and not brass. I had a butt plate from a supplier that was slightly off from the contour I wanted and set to bend it. It would not bend I thought to anneal it. After heating and quenching there were hundres of little cracks everywhere on the thinner edges moving deap into the main body of the plate. I ordeded another and it was dead soft and was easy as pie to work with. I would clamp it up and test it by tweeking with a wrench. The soft ones bend easily. It it wont bend send it back before messing with it.

[T*O*F]

With a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet and a block of lead, you can probably straighten it without having to fool around heating it.  I've done quite a few that way without any damage and very little refinishing.

[jerrywh]

 Never bend Brass when it is hot.  Steel bends better hot than cold. Silicone Bronze will not bend without breaking hot or cold.

[Goo]

Now I am curious to know the source these silicon bronze castings?

[rich pierce]

Now I am curious to know the source these silicon bronze castings?

The devil.  Just kidding.  I'm not sure they are as common as they were 20-30 y as ago or why on earth anybody used that material.  Just make sure you are ordering yellow brass when you order furniture.  In addition to being hard to file and impossible to safely bend, they tended to turn reddish in color with aging.

[jerrywh]

 I think the silicone bronze castings came from many different sources and I can tell you one thing that caused it.  About 20 years ago I was casting some brass gun parts and needed some brass so I went to the founders supply and asked for some yellow brass. At first they looked puzzled and told me that nobody was using yellow brass any more. I said that was impossible and told them that I had to have yellow brass. The man left the room for a while and then came back. He then said that he had located some and sold me 50 pounds in 2  25lb. bars.  I then proceeded to cast some parts with it and they looked just fine.  When I began to work with them I found that they were not flexible. Some of them were so brittle that when dropped on the concrete they would break.
   They lied to me and sold me silicone bronze. That lie cost me about $2000.00 at least. Besides the castings I spent a month making waxes and flasking all the waxes up and burning them out.
  I have always hated liars and this is another reason to do so.
  After this I conducted experiments on how I might anneal the bronze castings. After a week or so of heat treating experiments and research I concluded that there is no way to anneal them.
   No body I know of or ever heard of has discovered a way to anneal them.  I think I am not the only foundry person who this same thing happened to.
   I sold a lot of those castings but I always told the buyer that they would not bend and could not be annealed.

[Goo]

In the past I altered my alloy for sterling silver to .055 cu & .02 silicon bronze for a total of .075  when I made cuff bracelets it really helped to make a long lasting hard wearing bracelet.    They were more difficult to work but very strong.

[flehto]

This was my 2nd build in 1979 and unfortunately a bronze Bplate and TG were used. As the rifle aged, the disparity of color between the yellow brass Pbox and the bronze Bplate became very apparent.......Fred