Swaged Buttplates and Wooden Boxes

[Elnathan]

Those of you who have used swaged buttplates with wooden boxes, are there any tricks to ensuring that there will be no gap between the buttplate and the stock at the bottom of the box lid dovetail? The last one I made would fit nicely around the edges, but has a peened surface on the inside where I would cut for the box lid and would be difficult to file down. I should mention that the one I am making will probably have a long, acanthus leaf tang, so it will be difficult to scrape or file the concave inner surface of the plate where the box lid will go and just leave a little extra wood and inlet straight in.

[t.caster]

Do you mean that little gap inside the mortice where it is inlet for spring clearance? I guess I never worried about it.

[Elnathan]

Actually I was refering to the entire dovetail bottom. It might not be much of a problem - I was just wondering if there was something in particular I should do. Keeping the dovetail shallow (1/8" or so) would probably help.

[t.caster]

Yah, you don't need to go deeper than 1/8".

[Acer Saccharum]

El, one way to deal with that gap is to fit the buttplate deeply enough so you don't have that 'discovered gap' when you cut the box notch into the plate.

I  s'pose you could solder on  shim of brass to fill the gap.

I have seen originals with a gap right there, so I don't worry about it. It happened to the man long ago, it happens to us.

[rich pierce]

Most peened buttplates don't have that flat, so this is common and acceptable for most folks.  I have always inletted my buttplates all the way to the dome and this avoids the problem, as said above.

[Elnathan]

Okay, thanks.

[Eric Kettenburg]

You can (1) not worry about the gap:  common original practice for any buttplate; (2) rasp out the back of the buttstock to a curvature which better fills the buttplate 'hollow':  common original practice and best for very thin buttplates such as swaged brass; (3) just beat buttplate in to fill the gap (my personal favorite) and clean up the dovetail:  common original practice [many buttplates which appear to have been swaged of sheet are very roughly filed - if filed much at all - at the rear shoulder-contact portion].  I have never seen an original gun with pieces soldered, riveted or otherwise attached as infill to rectify this particular issue.