buttplate, easy questipn.

[frogwalking]

I am installing a fowler style buttplate.  I have read on this site that you sometimes get the fit close and then tap the plate to make the final fit tight.  When I tried to work the buttplate to the wood, it was not going to bend.  Although thin it is quite hard.  I set up my firebrick and heated the plate to dull red, holding it there for 5 minutes.  I then removed the heat gradually to slow the cool down.  The brass is still as hard as a rock.  Some quinch the brass, some cool slowly.  What can I do to soften this thing down? 

Thanks, Frog

[Daryl]

I hear you when saying that some quench, so let cool slowly.  I always quench to soften my brass.
Those who let it cool slowly, say it works. I think the only thing left for you, is to heat it up again and
quench it and see if that works.

[Carl Young]

Polish it, and compare the color to a polished brass cartridge. Brass is yellow gold, the addition of copper makes it take on a reddish tone. A lot of castings are some variant of bronze, which can be quite hard.

Good luck and keep us posted.
Carl

[alacran]

Fit it don't beat it.

[heinz]

I heat it up and then water  quench it to anneal.  Bronze alloys can be quite hard, they used it for cutting weapons before we became civilized enough to kill each other with iron.

But, as Alacran says. fit it don't beat it.  Unless you are very experienced with shaping with a hammer, tapping on a complex curve will cause movement in multiple directions.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Alacran has the correct answer.  When you filed the plate to dress the contact areas did you notice that the plate filed like brass or like something more like steel.  Many castings are not dead soft yellow brass, and they cannot be peened to fit...in fact they may crack.

[frogwalking]

It is very hard, as is the trigger guard.  I will do the best i can with fitting the wood.  Even as my knowledge has grown of how these guns should look, I have lost the vision in my right eye and am losing the feeling in my hands.  My craftsmanship although decent, has never been very good.  Thanks for the information.

[Dphariss]

I am installing a fowler style buttplate.  I have read on this site that you sometimes get the fit close and then tap the plate to make the final fit tight.  When I tried to work the buttplate to the wood, it was not going to bend.  Although thin it is quite hard.  I set up my firebrick and heated the plate to dull red, holding it there for 5 minutes.  I then removed the heat gradually to slow the cool down.  The brass is still as hard as a rock.  Some quinch the brass, some cool slowly.  What can I do to soften this thing down? 

Thanks, Frog

Sounds like bronze to me. Can’t be reformed. These are a major pain in the behind.

[Dphariss]

Frankly unless really deep into their use I would see if I could find replacements. I detest this stuff.

[Jim Filipski]

Goehring Brass is the best to work with: sounds like you have cast bronze as the others have noted

[Dave B]

It was years ago that i had a butt plate from TOTW that i was making in to a bucks co type butt plate. I aws at the final fitting stage a was trying to tap home some final minor gaps and couldnt move the brass. Normal brass can be annealed by heating cherry red then quenching. I pulled the quenched butt plate out to find all kinds of cracks in it ordered the sam one again and it formed just fine no issues but there was a differnce in its color with the soft one it had a distintive redish tone to it. I later read about silicabronze and its issues .

[flehto]

For my 2nd build ordered the Bplate and TG   from Track  and  a few months after completion the color changed  to a reddish hue and was  quite different than the Pbox which was made from yellow brass. Don't know how hard the bronze Bplate was  because I don't peen them to fit.  Shown is the Bplate after a few months...the TG was the same color....Fred