Shaping the butt stock before butt plate inlet

[Dave B]

Not to Hijack the thread about doing the Allentown sheathed butt plate return. I wanted to make an observation. You guys that work in the square are gluttons for punishment. Taylor has the right Idea. I take the wood a bit further down than he does. I say rough shape the butt stock like your doing a poor boy then inlet the butt plate with minimal wood to have to deal with and you can see what your doing. I even do the entry pipe having all most all the extra wood gone from the fore stock being now in the final rough shaped form. Its as easy as pie now to do these two dreaded tasks if you know where you are going with your shape to start with. My standard mode is to take the sock just received from Dave Rase, having him do the heavy lifting of swamp barrel inlet and perfect ramrod hole drilled. I take it down to the point its looking like a pre-carve. Only then do I cut out for my butt plate to inlet it onto the butt stock. I leave only about 1/8" clearance on both sides. With the Lehigh return the top of the comb needs to be the angle you want for the finished profile you should be able to slide the butt plate up to the point it is contacting the wood at the corner of the main butt plate. Then just as others above have described, inlet down  to depth, then start moving the butt plate forward till you have total contact for the rest of the butt plate. For the early guns that have the fancy shapes to the return you can't slide forward. You inlet the back section of the butt plate sliding the finial return over the top of the pre-shape till you get good contact in the corner of the return and the main part of the butt plate. Then inlet the fancy shape directly down. Most of the early pieces are almost flat in profile and have no curve so to speak so this works fairly well. I also cheat and bend the lower section of the butt plate away from the return so as to bend it back once the corner portion is full contact. I used to hate doing butt plates because I was working in the square. What a night mare. I had the light bulb come on when some one talked (Wallace Gussler)?? about the finding of a preshaped stock found in the rafters of an old gun shoppe some where in Virginia or Tennesee. It was all roughed out like Dave Keck was working up the river back then.







This project was done just as I have described shaping out the butt stock then sliding the butt plate over the top of the comb inletting the back corner to the point the start of the lower section has started to have good contact then drop it into the wood. This one is not fully inlet into wood at the front section of the final so what look like gaps are shadows.

[Stophel]

I see a lot of people inletting buttplates into a huge square chunk of wood (and the ramrod pipes and everything else).    That's a  LOT of work... and a LOT of work for nothing.  Inletting through SO much wood that you're gonna cut off anyway.

Ron Ehlert taught me to not inlet any more than you have to.   Locate the buttplate on the stock, cut the rear surface close to finished, and turn the buttplate around backwards, put it against the end grain, and trace it out.  Then shape your stock down to nearly finished dimensions. THEN inlet the buttplate.  Much easier, much quicker, MUCH less work, MUCH less wasted effort. 

[Eric Kettenburg]

Ditto.

[smart dog]

Hi,
You see guys doing the same thing with locks and worst of all, trigger guards.  My philosophy is to the greatest extent you can, fit parts to the stock you create not create a stock that fits your parts.

dave

[Mike Brooks]

I inlet everyting on the square. Buttplates take 30-45 minutes, rear pipes about 1/2 hour.

[bama]

I am with Mike on this one, I have approached it from both shaped and square and have ended up doing a combination of them both. I do as much of the rifle as I can with the stock square including installing most butt plates. It is much easier to hold the stock in the square, locate and drill holes, inlet the barrel, drill the ramrod hole and inlet the triggers and the guard. I shape the stock close to finish surface to install the rear pipe and nose cap. When I say square I do not necessarily mean full blank thickness. I do trim the blank down as I go but I do keep flat surfaces as long as I can.

I also agree with the guys who say to remove as much wood as possible before inletting a part. There is no sense inletting down through wood that is going to be removed. Get rid of the excess before starting and your life will be much easier.
 

[Not English]

I do as Mike and Bama do. I inlet everything on the square. Although I do cut the stock down to rough dimensions while still keeping it square. It's just so much easier laying it out and clamping while square.

Dave

[Jim Kibler]

On a buttplate I at least like to bevel off the stock to the general profile of the buttplate.   On an entry pipe I much prefer to shape out the stock nearly complete and then fit the pipe.  When I see people inletting through all this wood it drives me crazy!

Jim

[Seth]

It was all roughed out like Dave Keck was working up the river back then.

What does that mean?

[Karl Kunkel]

Dave Keck owns Knob Mountain Muzzleloading (knobmountainmuzzleloading.com).  He has an extensive library of stock profiles and precarved stocks and kits.