Should I/can I remove the butt cap and muzzel cap before staining and oiling?

[Rolf]

I just finished fitting the muzzle caps to the pistols. The butt caps and muzzle caps are made of sterling silver. If you anneal sterling silver several times you burn away some of the copper in the alloy and get a outer layer of pure silver. When I filed and sanded the parts smooth, I broke through this layer in places down to the sterling silver. This gives the parts a blotchy look. The best way to fix this, is to silverplate the parts.

Now the question:
If I stain and oil the stocks without the parts in place, will I mess up the wood to fit fit? Mike Miller in his video keeps the butcap and muzzelcap on the stock while staining and oiling.

Best regards
Rolfkt

[Jim Kibler]

If you can easily remove them, it wouldn't be a bad idea.  It's not really necessary though.  When staining with iron nitrate I remove what I can, but the nose cap and inlays have to stay.  If for example a butplate isn't removed, sometimes you get a band that doesn't darken up.  I guess this is because it doesn't get heated enough with the butplate so close.  I do generally get all the hardware back on the stock relatively early in the finishing process.  If you wait too long, you risk parts not fitting, especially if sitting the stock in the sun to help finish curing.

[Dphariss]

I would not worry about the stain but I would oil under all the parts to seal the stock.

Dan

[huckfinn]

When I finished my fowler I removed the butt plate and nose cap before staining.  I finished the stock with linseed oil and when I put the butt plate back on it just didn't fit quite right.  Not sure if it was the stain or the linseed oil.  I thought the wood should be sealed under there in case it got wet.  We hunt in any weather.  I have to go back and reinlet it just a hair. 

[Long John]

I have always removed everything and stained and sealed all of the inlets.  I have found that I have to take a small scraper and cleanout the inlets to get the parts back in.  Done carefully this is no problem, but it is an extra step and some times a frustrating one with tight inlets. 

On  my last rifle the nosecap was riveted on.  Since I use a vinegar/iron stain no heating is required and I just slopped the stain all over the brass muzzlecap and it wiped right off.  I sealed the engrain and under the muzzle cap by dipping the entire muzzle into a jar filled with thinned stock finish and wiping it off the brass.

Best Regards,

JMC

[Rolf]

Thanks for the advice. I'll remove the parts and send them to silverplating.

Best regards

Rolfkt