Hammering a Buttplate

[QuanLoi]

I know that when installing a brass buttplate, lightly hammering the edges is a possible remedy for eliminating the gaps that may exist between the brass and the wood.  Can the same method be applied when inletting a steel buttplate?

Thanks in advance...

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

It can... and it helps if the buttplate is thin....  Steel or iron is not as malleable as brass but it can be done... be careful not to hit so hard that you chip the wood...  Oh and don't try to stretch or shape it very far....that would indicate need for reshaping the wood.. just my experience.

[Stoner creek]

Not so with most of the cast buttplates. Patience is king here. Put your favorite disc in the CD player and budget as much time as it takes. Use the hammer to help smudge the wood. That's all.

[Dennis Glazener]

I truly enjoy inletting a buttplate. I  get the entire butt profile as close as I can with saw then start at the foward end of the extenstion and work back and down. Always moving the extension forward as needed to keep the bottom tight to the butt. I keep an old 1/4" chisel handy to use as a scraper. It really does not take long if you keep the top tight as you move down.
Dennis

[Nordnecker]

I forged the iron buttplate I'm working on right now. Ugh! I didn't hammer it thin enough. I couldn't hold it still to file it square or on plane with itself. Man, What an awkward shape! I had it inlet pretty well, then the (also hand forged) toe plate came along.
Trying to get these two parts to meet has been an exercise in patience . I tweeked the buttplate a tiny little bit to help the fit and by doing so, wrecked the inlet.  The screws were already installed and I'm trying to peen the buttplate back where it was and, sure enough, cracked the wood at the toe.
Now, it fits real well on one side but not the other. The lower screw in the BP isn't drilled at quite the right angle, either. I must ask myself, Why do you enjoy this sort of thing so much? I guess it's the challenge. Only someone who's been there and done that will ever appreciate how much effort it takes to get something like this worked out.
Now, I think everything looks too big.
Hope everything goes well with yours.

[kaintuck]

Iron BP really shouldn't be "beat" into place.....as you have found.
What anyone CAN do is....get some Bar-B-Q bricketts and heat the BP cherry red, with the buttstock in a vise, and your hammer and makeshift anvil nearby, see what needs to be adjusted on the BP...hammer it on the anvil, then replace on the wood.....over and over till it's good.....

Patience grasshopper........

Marc n tomtom

[David R. Pennington]

I mark my forged iron BP where it needs tweeked and move to anvil to peen and adjust. Small adjustments, like peening edge done cold. Major adjustment back in the fire. Most brass is soft enough for adjustment on wood, iron not so much. Never used cast iron one yet.

[flehto]

I don't peen a Bplate.. After filing the inside smooth and w/o depressions, it's inletted w/o gaps. Requires a little patience...heck I'm ret'd and have all the time in the world to "get it right". If peening serves the purpose, go w/ it....I just don't like to do it......Fred

[flinchrocket]

Steel is not going to peen down like soft brass. When your close enough to think about peening your about done anyway!