Ideally a SSBP should be fitted into the butt of the gun with the wood of the actual butt. So, the wood in the middle you are looking at is actually the end grain of the stock. Doing this way does take a LOT of time. To do it right.
Now, a workaround that SOME people take is to make the wood in the middle of the plate out of a separate piece of wood. This is in fact how the repro stocks were done by the factory in Japan. The repro stocks are hollowed out in the butt and a thin insert is glued in.
Maybe a solution to this is to have a conversation with your guy and see if he is willing to compromise and do the SSBP the later way. Fit the buttplate perimeter to the stock and then make an insert fitted to the plate and glue it on. If the guy can cleanly fit a spurred or steel buttplate to a stock, then he can handle this. I would think at least.
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B. Dudley
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