I have been working on the restocking (and other various things) a Lefever Optimus 10g. for a LACA member. The gun has lead a sorted life and this is the 4th stock that will be on the gun in its lifetime. And this is sort of a "finally getting it right" scenario.
The horn grip cap that was on the stock being replaced was pretty whipped. I am not sure it it was original or not, but it was not going to get reused. For the project, instead of using an original bake-light cap or a reproduction urethane one I decided to make the grip from scratch using horn.
I started with a square horn blank that was rectangular and the thickness of the final cap. I then ground it down to the oval shape required.
The screw hole could be drilled and countersunk and the cap could be attached to the the stock once the mounting surface was trued up. All of this was done after the trigger guard was inletted since the trigger guard strap was full length and extended all the way to the grip cap.
A locating pin was also added to the front bottom side of the cap which will guarantee the cap will remain int he same place while it is worked and removed/installed.
The owner of the gun wanted me to put my name under the grip cap so I did so at this time using era correct number stamps.
Then the cap was shaped in stages by hand. *First the dome profile, then the upper and lower step and finally the flutes are carefully filed in.
At this point I thought I was done, but the owner of the gun told me he wanted a gold inlay around the screw in the cap. It would have been better to have this done from the get go when I was working with the square block of horn, but No problem. I just had to get a little creative.
The cap was attached to a maple block using the locating pin and a little bit of super glue. *I centered it using the existing screw hole. *I then cut in the recess for the inlay using a 1/2" end mill. *The hole actually measures .48" diameter.
I used a Ronald Regan commemorative coin that I purchased on the internet. *It was solid 14k gold. *And was less than half the price it would've cost to buy the amount of gold new in sheet form.
I glued the coin to a maple dowel so it could be mounted int he lathe. I drilled out the center of the coin and held it down with a small screw and some super glue. I could then turn the coin down to the .48" diameter required.
I could then epoxy the coin into the cap. Once cured, I was able to drill the final hole in the gold and countersink it to match the existing hole in the cap. The screw was then indexed and dressed off/polished flat with the cap. The screw and inlay will of course be engraved when the time comes.
Done deal. Enjoy photos below the outline the above described process.
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11-03-2018, 01:25 PM
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