Yee Haaaaa!

[J. Talbert]

Glad to have this done!





I don't know about anybody else but I always breath a sigh of relief when I get the butt plate on. 
This one went pretty well. 

Jeff

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Very nicely done.  Every step of a build is a good reason for celebration!

[WadePatton]

Very nicely done.  Every step of a build is a good reason for celebration!

Well, some lil' ole fussy multi-plane inlets deserve a bit more jubilation than others.

"Yee Haaaaa"  INDEED!

 

[smylee grouch]

It does look nicely done. Is that a York county style butt plate?

[Mike Brooks]

Try making a french styled buttplate out of sheet brass and putting it on. I always call it "worrying on the buttplate" when it comes to those. I usually start one day and finish the next, too frustrating otherwise. Always seems like it's never going to work untill all of a  sudden it's on.
"Usually" on a buttplate like yours I still have the stock square when I put it on. I run the upper part through the band saw so it's close to square with the stock. I generally don't have a bunch of wood humped up under the forward finial. But, there's probably as many ways to do it as there are gunmakers.... Your method gave you great results.

[thimble rig]

Nice looking job.Sometimes those buttplates can be a pain .

[J. Talbert]

Smylee, it is a York style.  It's Jim Kibler's Eister plate.

Mike, I've done a couple English shotguns but no French.  The English tangs were not that complex.
I have done more long rifle butt plates the way you describe rather than this way, but I've done the last two this way.  This one already had the two facets filed at an angle and the casting was so good, all I did was touch it with a file and it was ready.   Is anybody surprised that Jim's castings are first rate?      I also like the result of this method.  I don't think it takes me much longer, and when done , the plate can't possibly shift.  Also the wood being closer to the top flat makes it easier to get that dang screw straight.

Jeff

[David R. Pennington]

Good job. I've never been able to bring myself to leaving a hollow under that top part. Just don't feel right some how.

[oldtravler61]

Personally I thank it makes a stronger support by inletting that way. Nice job well done.

[Mark Elliott]

That is certainly a superb inletting job.   I am sure that plate won't move much.   However, they all move a little on removal and replacement.  

I used to inlet my butt plates like you, with the wood up in the heel extension with the little tracks and the plate down in the butt stock.   I would spend 8 hours or more on them.  I don't do it that way any more.    I do it like the originals.   That means that I  file the plate and heel extension off flat and make a cut-out in the butt stock for the heel extension and plate as close to finished as I can.   The last time,  I made the long cut for the heel extension on the bandsaw, and made the cross cut with a tenon saw as close as I could to the angle on the heel extension itself.   I only had about 1/16" to bring the heel extension in.  

John Bivins would cut more time off his inlet by setting the bandsaw table at slight angle when he cut the curve for the plate.   I don't bother with this but I might on the next one.  It could shave off 30 minutes or more spent just getting the inside of the curve at the right angle.  

As to the plate,   I just rasped down the buttstock to get the butt piece fit close.   then I screwed the whole thing down tight and peened the plate edges and the corners of the heel extension to the wood.  It was as good a fit as any I have done and it took less than two hours.   I should note that this was a relatively flat early butt piece.   A highly curved one would have surely taken a lot more time.    

[bob in the woods]

Mark Silver's DVD re stocking a long rifle using only hand tools demonstrates this method of installing a butt plate.  I tried it on my last rifle, and found it worked out pretty well. I would imagine it would be a plus to use this method if you have a swaged plate.  [ more support ]. Otherwise, I'll stick with how I've done it for years and use a saw 

[Jim Kibler]

That is certainly a superb inletting job.   I am sure that plate won't move much.   However, they all move a little on removal and replacement.  

I used to inlet my butt plates like you, with the wood up in the heel extension with the little tracks and the plate down in the butt stock.   I would spend 8 hours or more on them.  I don't do it that way any more.    I do it like the originals.   That means that I  file the plate and heel extension off flat and make a cut-out in the butt stock for the heel extension and plate as close to finished as I can.   The last time,  I made the long cut for the heel extension on the bandsaw, and made the cross cut with a tenon saw as close as I could to the angle on the heel extension itself.   I only had about 1/16" to bring the heel extension in.  

John Bivins would cut more time off his inlet by setting the bandsaw table at slight angle when he cut the curve for the plate.   I don't bother with this but I might on the next one.  It could shave off 30 minutes or more spent just getting the inside of the curve at the right angle.  

As to the plate,   I just rasped down the buttstock to get the butt piece fit close.   then I screwed the whole thing down tight and peened the plate edges and the corners of the heel extension to the wood.  It was as good a fit as any I have done and it took less than two hours.   I should note that this was a relatively flat early butt piece.   A highly curved one would have surely taken a lot more time.    

Mark,

Are you suggesting originals were not inlet in this way?  Some certainly were.  Not uncommon.  Certainly a heck of a lot more work, though.

Nice Job, Jeff.

Jim

[Mark Elliott]

Jim,

I wasn't suggesting that some rifles didn't have the butt pieces inlet like the photo.   I used to do them like that based on the guidance in William Buchele's (sp?) Recreating the American Longrifle.   It is just that all the original long guns I have ever taken apart were done using the simpler method.    The simpler method was also the one that John Bivins recommended and used in his Rifle magazine articles.  I gradually moved away from the more complicated method to the simpler one as the result didn't seem to be any different, even 200 years out.   Of course,  I could be wrong about that.   I am sure you have seen more original, particularly early original, rifles than me.  I did not in anyway intend to suggest there was anything inferior about the inlet job in question; in fact, just the opposite.   I was just pointing out that in the future, there might be a simpler way that works just as well.     

Best,

Mark

[Mike Brooks]

(In my best Beavis and Butthead voice)  Mark said BUT PIECES....... ....Anyway.... All the originals I have taken apart are sawn. I'm sure they were done the way Jeff has done his also, but I haven't seen it either. Maybe it's an early/late thing.

[Daryl]

Glad to have this done!





I don't know about anybody else but I always breath a sigh of relief when I get the butt plate on.  
This one went pretty well.  

Jeff

Looking good, Jeff, butt plates can be quite difficult.