Buttplate screws - Announcement!

[B. Dudley]

I would like to share something that I am doing.

I have been working with a local production machine shop on manufacturing Parker buttplate screws for my parts inventory.

I know, I know... you may say that others are offering Parker buttplate screws for sale, why do I have to do it?
Well, no one is having screws made they way I am having them made.

On All parkers from the beginning up to the mid 1920s, especially on guns with Dogs Head Buttplates, the screws on the butt have their screw slots timed and also the heads are dressed off flat and FLUSH with the buttplate.

When using used screws, or new screws from other available sources, fitting them properly cannot be done. If the slot is timed, the screw almost always sits down low in the buttplate hole. And the angle of the hole in the wood can leave the head sitting at an angle in the hole as well. If you look at original buttplate screws, the heads are all a little different from screw to screw due to the hand fitting to each gun at the factory.

The screws I am having made are high headed and have no slots cut in them. So, the screw slot can be timed and also the head can be priorly fitted down flush with the buttplate. Just like the factory did them.

Within a month, I will have a starting supply of 400 screws that are made this way.

[Allan McLane]

Brian, here's an idle question: how do you drive the screw home without a slot?

[B. Dudley]

A pipe wrench. Kidding...

You cut a shallow starter slot to get the screw tight, then you mark for a timed slot and cut that one deep.

[Allan McLane]

Geez, I would have guessed vice grips ...just kidding too ;]

Thank you for the explanation!

[Dean Romig]

It's a lot more work but it's the right way to do it.

Who will you have do the engraving on the screw heads?

[B. Dudley]

That is the key here, doing the job right.

Gournet does all my engraving work for Parkers. If screws need engraving, he will do them by the job.

[Dean Romig]

I kinda thought you'd say Gournet. He's an excellent engraver... and that's an understatement.

[Richard Flanders]

I've always been curious as to what sort of cutter you use to cut the slots.

[Hammer Gun]

Brian, Good idea, It just goes along with the way you do things, " the right way" congrats on the idea, please show us some in prep and with slot cut thanks, Gary

[jim garrett]

John Hosford makes an excellent jig for screw slotting. I made one for a Purdey that I am refinishing and it turned out quite well. Jim