Author Topic: toe plate  (Read 2655 times)

Offline Duane Harshaw

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toe plate
« on: March 03, 2017, 09:50:36 PM »
I have taken the perch belly off of my GPR now I need to re-inlet the toe plate I have never done anything like that so I could use all the help I can get .thx
Coaldale Alberta Canada

Offline Molly

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2017, 11:27:45 PM »
Homelite chain saw should do the trick!


Actually, I'm going to do one myself is a short time so in addition to watching the Primitive Arts videos, I'll follow this thread.

Offline Joe S.

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2017, 12:14:59 AM »
OK,working on my first build myself maybe a newbies perspective might help.Look at the the folks who do this for a living totorials. D.Taylor Sapergia has a fine hawken thread on this site if you do a search.Now back to how not to do it,started off OK,made my own toe plate,out of a concrete wall tie.Drew a out line of the detail on the bottom flat of the stock,Made a depth line on the side of the stock and filed the wood inward on each side down to the depth line.Then cleaned up the center with a sharp chisel. Then used a chisel cut in the outline of the detail and and cleaned that out to the depth of the rest of the inlet,smoked it to check for high spots,good To go.OOPs!!! forgot that the butt plates cresent sweeps away from the plate,the toe plates too short now,back out to the job site for another tie and a doover ;)

vulture

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2017, 03:47:11 AM »
I've done several of these, and interestingly enough I am in the process of putting together a GPR flintlock kit, and I did exactly as you, and when I was finished I didn't like the toe plate that came with the kit so built me a new one for some sheet metal I have.  I have also built toe plates out of horn before, looks really nice on the rifle it is installed on, but it was a bit difficult to get the piece to lay flat so I could shape the desired size needed.  I am no expert but what I do is draw a line around the item to be inlet, such as your toe plate, and I use the sharpest lead I can come up with and keep the tip at an angle so that the line is right flush with the edge of the toe plate.  Once I have my line then I use some very narrow chisels to cut the curved portion of the plate.  In the past I have designed the toe plate to be slightly larger than the width of the bottom flat of the stock, that way once it is installed I can file it back to mate up smoothly with the wood.  I once tried to use my dermal tool with a small router bit chucked up in it to cut the forward rounded end of the plate, only did this once, learned that it is much wiser to use small chisels and take my time.  In the past I made my own chisels for this type of delicate work using either a good quality screwdriver that would sharpen and hold an edge, which I found most won't, so I started making them out of allen wrenches, or small easy out screw removers, they are usually made from fairly good steel, and simply heated them up until they were soft and forged them to the size and shape of edge I wanted, then rehardened and tempered them.  A couple I have out there I have been using for years and they can be sharpened to a razor edge and hold that edge for a good while.  One is about an eighth of an inch wide the other is smaller.  With those two I can make some pretty tight curves by simply working my way around my layout lines, going slow and easy.  There are times when once you redo a job like you are talking about the original holes in the wood won't mate up with the holes in the toe plate, if this happens you can simply plug the original holes with dowals or match sticks, what ever fits in the hole good and tight, and I simply use Elmers wood glue, once they are set and the glue has cured I mark and drill the new holes, never had a screw pull out if I did a good plug job.  Hope this helps, and remember, if you cut out too much wood you can always get some sheet steel or brass and make a longer toe plate, due to their simple design they are not all that difficult to create.  I purchased a brass door kick plate several years ago and then never used it, since then I've used that to make a number of inlays out of as well as a backing plate for my porch light when I could find nothing else that would work, it is fairly decent brass and not too expensive, not as thick as the original steel toe plate, but then toe plates don't have to be all that thick really, at least not in my opinion.  Good luck.

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2017, 09:06:25 PM »
I assume you are going to use the toe plate that came with the rifle.  First make sure that there is a slight 'draft' or taper to the inletting surfaces so that as you inlet the steel, it will continue to get tighter in the inlet as you go in.
Next, suspend the toe plate over the area it is to be inlet to so that the butt end will mate with the butt plate.  You must be looking straight down onto that plate.  Now with a sharp pencil, carefully trace the curved inlet you will cut.
Measure the thickness of the plate and draw that dimension parallel to the edge of the stock on both sides.  Use sharp chisels to cut on the inside of the finial end.  I plunge the chisels in full depth.  Use a big flat chisel to take away all the wood where the flat part of the plate will lie.  A sharp thin chisel will cut nicely across the grain.  You can smooth it with a block and sand paper, but be careful not to round it.  Take this wood away right down to the line.  Getting this area flat is difficult, so go slowly and carefully.
Keep tying the plate in the inlet with transfer colour until it goes down into the finial inlet and lies flat on the stock.  you may need to file away steel on the butt end so that it mates perfectly with the butt plate as it bottoms in its inlet.
Enjoy the ride!
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2017, 05:16:10 PM »
I did one yesterday; One thing I did without thinking was to mark and cut my toe plate's width before I inletted it. As I inletted the plate down it got too narrow for the wider wood. so I had to remove some wood and metal from the buttplate to match the thinner toe plate. It was only about 1/16" but I could have saved myself some work if I had inletted then cut the width of my toeplate.

I dropped my stock and chipped the toe, my repair looked awful.



Positioned the toeplate;



Filed a draft around the front of the toe plate;



Here is where I got out of sequence, marking my toe plate width.



Cutting to my lines;



Marking for my inlet;



In with stock wood reduced to the toe plate width;



I had to file the buttplate a little to match the narrower toe plate;



Done, a little bling added to a plain TC hawken stock that I reshaped;




Offline Duane Harshaw

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Re: toe plate
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2017, 03:29:33 AM »
very nice
Coaldale Alberta Canada