Handmade steel buttplates

[mongrel]

A bit of interest has been shown in the steel buttplates installed on certain of my rifles.

By and large I don't use commerically-available steel buttplates on any of my guns. I will make an exception if a customer requests it, but since the only steel plates available are investment-cast items, and those retail right around $25 apiece, unless a customer HAS requested a specific commercial plate and is paying for it, I use my own stuff.

I start with 1 1/2" wide, 1/8" thick steel flats and the sort of black gas pipe that's roughly 1" in outside diameter. Both are available at my local Lowe's and if you don't count labor the cost of a typical buttplate works out to somewhat less than five dollars.

Wider (and narrower) flat stock is available, but the next size up in width is 2" -- unless I'm doing a fowler or jaeger buttplate I stick to the narrower widths. 1 1/4" widths work quite well for smaller-scaled, smaller-bore rifles where recoil isn't going to be a major factor.

I cut the pipe lengthwise with a portable bandsaw. I don't split the pipe evenly down the middle; this would result in too thick a buttplate extension (the portion inletted and blending into the comb of the stock). I split roughly 1/3 of the pipe off each side, then spend a fair amount of time truing the two bottom edges of the resulting sections. The end that I will weld to the actual plate, I cut at an angle determined by how sharply-curved a buttplate I want; the sharper the angle, the greater the curve of the plate will need to be. The end that will eventually butt up to the wood of the comb will need to be cut square, but I generally don't worry about that in the initial fabrication process.

I have a jig I use for forming the plate portions. It's simply a section of pressure-treated 2x6 that has had one side cut to the general curve I want, and a steel plate bent and screwed to this curve to protect the wood from heat. One end of the steel-reinforced curve is notched so that the flat steel I'll be bending can be clamped to it, which greatly assists in getting consistent, even bends.

A section of 1 1/2" flat stock is cut about 5"-5 1/2" long, heated orange-hot (hotter than red) with an oxy-acetylene torch, then clamped to the jig and pressed down to conform to the curve, before the steel can cool enough to become stiff and springy.

Since I generally make anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen plates in one session, and I dislike quenching heated steel due to the possibility that it will harden on me, which can make drilling and countersinking screws holes a pain in the tail, later -- I unclamp the plate and set it aside to cool while I either bend more plates or set up for the next step.

Incidentally, the flat stock carried by Lowe's is cut to width (I think) on some form of press, which slightly bevels the edges of the flat on one side. This side ought to be DOWN when clamped to the jig, or if a jig isn't used and the flat is curved, freehand, the bevelled edges ought to be on the inside of the curve, the portion that will contact your shoulder rather than being mated to the wood of the stock. The bending process forces the steel into a slightly convex profile, on the inside of the curve, and with the bevelled edges also on this side you end up with a much more comfortable-to-the-shoulder plate than one that's perfectly flat.

I am devising a jig for holding the buttplate extension to the top of the inside face of the plate, but this is a work in progress.... The idea is to have the extension attached squarely to the plate, so that when attached to the butt of the stock the plate will be square to the comb when eyeballed from above, and also square in a vertical line with the stock.

I bevel the end of the extension where it will attach to the main plate, which allows deeper, stronger welds. I usually do a small but solid tack with a wire-feed welder set on moderately high heat/depth, then inspect the plate for trueness of edges, squareness, and overall appearance. Everything meeting approval, I proceed to weld everything up solid. I will be the first to say that my initial welds are a lot more strong than pretty. I prefer grinding off excess steel filler to having to go back and fill missed holes and such in a newly-done plate. I also do some welding to the inside of the extension where it meets the plate, since generally there is always at least a small amount of bending and flexing necessary when fitting a plate to a stock and having to stop to re-weld, when a buttplate cracks at the juncture of extension and plate, will make me say naughty words.

All the above may make more sense when looking at the results of the described work. To someone who can weld, to begin with, and who understands the geometry of the typical buttplate, I think the pictures help clarify the description.

First plate in the first two photos is one that has been freshly-welded, shown from the outside and inside. The second plate has had excess steel removed from the 1 1/2" wide plate; the third one has been ground to very close to finished shape.

The final photo shows several plates that are actually all products of the same jigs, and in fact the three finished ones came out of the same plate-making session. "Handmade" means no two are ever completely, precisely alike, and since each plate has to be custom-inletted to its stock the slight (sometimes not-so-slight) differences in exact size and contour don't really matter.

The flatness of the plates does not, in my experience, increase perceived recoil, and I've shot fully-charged rifles in up to .54 caliber with nothing between my shoulder and the gun's kick but one of these plates and a t-shirt. They do NOT precisely match the full contour of molded plates, but for the customer (or builder) to whom the difference between $5 and $25 is significant -- these are the way to go.

I've seen the same basic process followed, but soldering the steel instead of welding, and I expect brass flats and heavy-walled tubing could be fabricated into precisely the same shapes, but the availability of oxy-acetylene and sand-cast brass pieces means that this is how I personally do it and that I only fabricate these items from steel.

[texasranger]

can not beat the look on your butplates, good work

[mongrel]

Thank you. All part of the process of coming up with a gun design that's fast and fairly inexpensive to build.

I'll post on my steel triggerguards at some other time.

[Tim Ault]

Nice job. You make it look easy. Too bad you couldnt roll form the whole blank length at one time but it would make it difficult to cut out each individual plate after its formed to the radius you want.

[gunmaker]

I've been making my own steel buttplates for quite some time as well.  Lately I've started to fab. brass plates & guards as well.  I cut out pieces & braze it together.  Got the book Recreating double shotgun for Christmas, in it author shows a pattern cut from 1 piece formed & welded.  Will try that soon....Tom