hard to find good wood screw?

[Bigmon]

When I get these unplated small wood screws do I need to harden them?  The slots are so poor, and the metal so soft.
Am I really just buying a "kit" so to say, for each screw.  They are about impossible to keep from marring, slipping, etc?
Is there any where to but them unplated and ready to really use??
Thanks

[David Rase]

I have been buying my screws from Blacksmith Bolt.   http://www.blacksmithbolt.com/  I have been pleased with their products.
David

[rich pierce]

Slots are wide

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I use Blacksmithbolt screws.  Often, I drop the screw into a forging block and hammer the head down - then, re-cut the slot.  Most original wood screws don't have quite the high dome as our modern ones do.

[kutter]

I know it's not an answer to a need for a supply of  ready to go good quality screws,,
but I turn out blanks on my lathe quickly leaving the shank an appropriate machine screw dia and the head it's countersink shape
all in one tool shape cut.

Then simply thread the shank with that machine screw size coarse thread size using a die.
Hacksaw off the screw and turn & thread another. You can make them quite quickly.

The coarse machine screw thread holds beautifully in hardwood like maple and walnut with a simple pilot hole first drilled.
The head of the screw left tall can be rough slotted with a hacksaw to turn it in first while fitting,,then marked for 'clocking' the finish slot and rough height if you wish to do that.
I cut the screw slot with a jewelers saw and a coarse cut .020 wide blade. Thin by any L/R standard I'm sure. But you can certainly widen them with a slotting file if you like or taper the slot as originals were.
I just don't care for screw slots on any firearm that look like they were made to be taken down with a nickel.


I use these lathe made screws in some of my cartridge gun restoration work and many European & English guns from the 1800's and forward used this style. Butt plate, grip cap and trigger guard screws usually.

While not PC for a L/Rifle,,neither is a stainless steel flash hole liner.
I think we use enough modern conveniences in building to say we are mearly doing that,,building a rifle.

[westbj2]

These screws are not cheap but are very high quality and have working heads which can be timed after fitting. 
https://www.csmcspecials.com/category_s/19.htm
Jim

[flehto]

My complaint w/ most screws on the market is that the unthreaded length is too long and the slots aren't deep enough ....would like to have narrower slots, but they'll have to do. After filing the slots deeper, I always  Kasenit the heads so they won't become "buggered up". 

Have 0ver 40 screwdrivers  and the cheaper ones are   hollow ground    so the tip  only applies force to the bottom of the slots......Fred

[Jerry]

Log Cabin in Lodi, Ohio has some very nice wood screws. Hope this helps.

[Old Ford2]

All you need is a metal lathe, a couple thousand dollars in tooling, two to three hours later, and you just saved $2.00 in screws.
Now that is a bargain!
Fred

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Fred:  that's the stuff to give the troops!!  I bought a $5000 lathe so I can make my own $2 ramrod tips and lock screws.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Never have quite figured out the screw business on long rifles.  Are the slots tapered due to being cut with a V file?  Back in the day as an apprentice office machine mechanic for National Cash Register Co. We worked on machines with many screws that had to be removed and replaced frequently for maintenance etc. Some of our cash Registers had as many as 600+ moving parts. So screw heads had to be protected.  The first two weeks I worked there I sat at the grinder and hollow ground and hardened a variety of sized screwdrivers to exactly fit the screws we used, for myself and then everyone else in the shop...seemed like.  They wouldn't let me do anything else for those two weeks. When I finished I had a dozen perfectly fitting screwdrivers for my toolbox and never stripped a screw slot. Having my druthers, that is how I would make a rifle as well... cut straight sided slots... and give the owner a fitted screwdriver with their gun............ So how should they be done??

[45-110]

roger that on the 5 grand in lathe tooling to make a $2 screw, and then another 3-4 grand for my mill to slot the buggers, but that's what I do all the time to satisfy my anal demand for a quality screw(s). I make them out of drill rod, then thread the exact amount of shank and no more...then polish, harden and polish again. Granted some of these screws go on pricey black powder cartridge guns too.

[lost arrow 801]

These screws are not cheap but are very high quality and have working heads which can be timed after fitting. 
https://www.csmcspecials.com/category_s/19.htm
Jim

Thank you these look great. I dont mind paying 2 bucks a screw when there like this.