Am I the only one to think this?

[Jerry V Lape]

While cleaning up a buttplate casting it occurred to me that the natural finish on the butt portion would really make a great non-slip finish.  And there I was working hard to polish it to a nice shiny slippery finish instead.  Has there been any originals left rough or checkered to give a non-slip surface?  Maybe next build I will leave an unfinished ellipse down the centers with a surrounding polished border.  Would look better than some of the butts I have seen with rubber non-slip stuff glued to them. 

[Daryl]

YUP!  
I've seen some pretty nasty-looking butts myself.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

It's difficult to tell on guns finished with brass furniture, what the original polish might have been.  But on a nice hawken rifle Don Stith showed me at Dixon's in 2007, I remarked that the butt plate was very coarsely polished.  It had lateral grind marks that looked to be no finer than 80 grit.  For adding 'gription' to the butt, it would have been perfect.

[M. E. Pering]

Hi Jerry.  I wish I could recall where (but I don't) I saw a checkered butt plate in the past.  These photos were of an original gun from the 18th century, and the back of the plate was only partially engraved with checkering.  Maybe covering 1/3 to 1/2 of the area.  Not sure why the whole area wasn't covered.  But this was an old rifle, and it has be done at least once. 

Matt

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Interesting point. Many have noted that even on the finest rifles the inside of the trigger guard would not be polished.  When looking at the rifle form the profile it is most often seen, the back of the buttplate is not seen.  And it is a part used to sit on the ground.  So you may be on to something.

Coryjoe

[Joe S.]

I wouldnt want a highly polished finish on my iron parts.Brass is a little more fancy so I would figure it would be more polished.Quess were at a personal preference thing,to each his own.My butt plate and trigger guard are eighty grit sanded now and will see what one twenty looks like and go from there.

[bob in the woods]

Lately, I've been using scrapers on brass parts. Works very well, and depending on the finish I want, I'll follow up with fine files ...or not .