doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Horn Butt Plate

I have a Charles Daly I need a nice horn butt plate fitted to and give it a bit more length. Who might you suggest to do a good job? Thanks!

How much extra length are you trying to add?

If it’s more than half an inch wouldn’t a Silvers solid butt pad look better and at least as appropriate.

Horn is horrible buttplate material. Unless you are just dead set on horn, go with a solid pad, as Parabola suggested. You'll be glad.
JR

Why is horn horrible?

Well it stinks to high heavens to start with. I hate working with horn.smells like burning hair when you are working with it. Plus finding it in great thickness can be a problem. It is commonly seen in German guns but I’d rather not use it at all. Much rather use a Silvers pad or leather covered pad.

How, exactly, is this the OPs problem? He asked who he could PAY to have this work done, presumably, any craftsman who takes MONEY in exchange for fitting a horn buttplate will have made his peace with the smell. Horrible buttplate material? How so? Good horn takes checkering well, and looks like a million bucks when polished on the edges and fitted. It isn’t terribly heavy, is pretty durable, and lends a finished look to the end of a stock. Ebony does as well, but, is getting harder to get every year. A 3/8 block of checkered and polished horn, would look perfect on a gun like that. Much thicker than that might not look as well.

Opinions are like aholes, and there are lots of them out there, but, I would do lots of things prior to putting a chunk of plastic or rubber on the end of a gun.

Totally last resort.

Last I heard, this guy is still at it:

http://dutchmanwoodworks.com/services/

Best,
Ted

Haha. Teds right, opinions are like a-holes, well...here’s this a-holes multi million dollar opinion....horn sucks. 😂

Ebonite is much more practical, isn’t prone to shrinking, isn’t going to get eaten by bugs, it’ll be cheaper, takes checkering or grooving well, can be polished and you can usually get it in any thickness you’d want.

I’ll thumbs up Teds suggestion of Larry Schuknecht at Dutchman. Good dude. Has restocked two guns for me too.

Wow Ted, what do you really think? He asked why it is horrible. Most gunsmith I know wont fool with it for the reasons I posted. Sorry if that offends you. It does smell like crap when you work it. I have done five or six myself and it truly stinks. I would rather use Ebony instead and that is like carving granite. It takes a polish better and last longer. I do not know of any bugs who will eat it like horn. But if you wan to be correct on a Germanic gun. like I said earlier, then go with horn. Just don't make me smell it.

The gun is a Daly. Plastic doesn’t belong there. None of us has enough years left to ponder bugs, shrinkage, or the cost of buttplate material. Larry will do it, and it will be NICE. It will look right.

You want plastic on your European guns, have at it. Even jOe pried the plastic eagle out of the pistol grip of his SBEs, and replaced them with a natural material that had art work on it.

Best,
Ted

I just cut a horn fore end tip for a German sporting rifle I am restocking for a client this afternoon. Fast cut speeds and keep the bit moving so it does not smoke.

I have made several horn plates for clients, they are not fun but they can look really nice. Horn buttplates are very labor intesive and therefore costly as well, especially with a couple of fitted and engraved screws added in. I agree with Ted, horn plates are best kept thin.

I'm crazy busy lately and not taking any quick turn over work at the moment.

Try some guild members, several have experience with the process:

https://www.acgg.org/index.php/membership/find-a-member.html

Ebonite isn’t technically “plastic”. And regardless what you think, it would be right at home on a Daly. 99% of the people out there would have to look really hard at a freshly finished ebonite plate to know that it’s not horn. Freshly finished ebonite and horn look very similar, just without the tell tale grain structure of the horn. You know what else doesn’t belong on a on a Daly....Turkish walnut. Regardless, we see them being restocked in the stuff all the time. Ive seen ebonite on Dicksons, Purdeys & Holland’s.
It’s actually found on a many vintage fine guns, especially American ones and on quite a few British & Continental guns.

Chillax Ted. Just a different opinion, no need to get all cranky, especially towards me.

Mess with the bull, you get the horn...
JR

Could be a Japanese Daly.....

HA! I’m not cranky. Yet. My wife will vouch for that.

I deliberately put ebonite on a Tobin I had restocked. Because it belonged there, and looked right. It was not checkered, just grooved. But, I’d wager the cost of a few rounds of trap that the Daly had horn on it when it was new. With engraved screws holding it on.

Agree with the Turkish wood thing. Or Claro or American black walnut, on a gun that it doesn’t belong on.

A high polish reblue on production grade guns bugs me, too.

There was a gent from Alaska who was selling top quality water buffalo horn a few years back, right here on the forum. I bought a beautiful piece to make a buttplate from. The last buttplate I had done was checkered ebony, because, that was what belonged there.

But, I don’t really have a gun a proper horn plate belongs on, not yet, anyway. To me, that would be a top quality, but, mid to higher grade continental double.

The exact gun the OP is inquiring about.

Best,
Ted

It’s not. It’s a Lindner.

Hahaha. If you knew dukxdog and the Daly’s he has,you’d never say that .