Hi,
Here is how I install the style of butt plate on the Edward Marshall rifle. Bigmon asked for help a week or so ago and I thought I would post this for him and others. I am building the gun from a rough stock and using a wax cast plate from Barbie Chambers.
The first task is to prepare the plate. Two notches have to be filed into the triangular finial on the front of the plate. They are the exact profile of the edge of a half round file so filing them was a piece of cake. The butt plate has a slight concave arc to the face that needs to be straightened. I annealed the brass and simply squeezed each edge in a vise to straighten it. Next I flatten all the inside of all edges that sit on the wood and file draft in all edges that inlet into the wood.
When the plate is ready for inletting, I carefully trace the profile on the stock. Now, I normally don't install a butt plate until the stock is roughly shaped and in this case, that would make the job easier. However, I decided to do the plate now so it might still be in time to be of some use to Bigmon. After tracing the outline I cut very close to the line on the end of the stock. That face is almost perfectly straight down, which makes installing this plate much easier. The original rifle is also very straight. I mount the stock in my leg vise with the muzzle supported by a dog in the sliding deadman. Note how the face of the plate needs very little work to bring it flat to the stock. Basically, once it is flat against the stock, the butt plate no longer will be moved forward during inletting, just straight down. Again, this is so much easier when the plate is flat with no arc.
The dog I mean is an iron hook not my little black and white buddy. That positions the butt end high up and eay to see and work on for the initial tasks.
I determine where the shoulder of the part of the tang that sits down on the wood ends and where the part that is inlet into the wood begins. I cut and file away that shoulder.
I shape the shoulder and radiused heel until the plate fits down on the stock. Then I can trace the forward part of the tang and start inletting it.
I just keep working forward with the inletting until the tang sits down into the wood. I use inletting black to check the fit and make minor adjustments. The job would be easier if the top of the comb was already rounded close to the final form. The edges of the tang sit below the level of the wood so I have to be careful removing the plate so I don't chip the wood. The job came out nicely and I am pretty happy with it. As per the original, the wood screw on top is 1 3/4" from the end of the heel of the plate and the lower screw is 1 3/8" up from the bottom of the toe.
dave
