" The Cherry Rifle " and my new floorplate fixture

[Barry Lee Hands]

Recently I damascened some cherries on a .375 H&H Johansenn action with custom metal by Lee Helgeland, stocked by Gary Goudy.
In the past I normally attached floorplates to a piece of wood with hot glue, but on this job because of the toughness of the rose gold and the softness of the floorplate and the lightness of the wood block things were not a dead as the could be and it took me a long time to convince the rose gold to stick with the damascene method.
I decided to make a new fixture, and with Lee's help I came up with the widget in the following pics and I thought you might like to see it.

Basically it is a piece of round bar stock with a rod at one end in a slot to catch the hook on the floorplate and a clamp in a slot on the other end to clamp the hinge and a t shaped thing in the middle to grip the spring slot to take up the slack.

[ron]

hi Barry and Merry Christmas .. thanks for showing us that plate it is very interesting and very handy I would like to have one of those for my tool inventory .. how much .. . I just had the opportunity to inlay platinum and I don't like it I found it very hard to do can it be softened .. ron p.

[Barry Lee Hands]

Hi Ron, Merry Christmas. You can aneal platinum by heating it to cherry, and letting it cool. Make sure you are using pure platinum.
The problem is it work hardens when you hit it by the second or third blow. The key is to prepare your cavity very well and make sure your wire or sheet is sized just right.
I had not planned to sell these fixtures, however, I may in the future. The cost would be $950.00 as they are made one at a time, not cnc'd.
Thank you to Steve Lindsay for the free ad space, hehe.

[BrianPowley]

Nice little widget, Barry.
Love the work on the floorplate.
Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas my friend!
Brian

[ron]

hi Barry .. Merry Christmas .. thanks for your reply and info on platinum , I now know I am going to try to avoid any platinum inlays . and I don't know why not silver since it works better . my customer bough the platinum wire .,016 and I did tell him to get pure so I guess that is what it is .. on those jigs , keep us posted they look great and think about making some others like for holding knife bolsters without destroying the edge of the bolster , I have some customers that send me only the bolsters to be engraved so I glue them to a piece of steel, but I do think there is a better way .. ron p

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thanks Ron. I glue my bolsters down also, they are so variable in shape, I have never thought of a good jig that would work for more than one set at a time. Mayber somebody out there has a good design to show us.

[Peter]

Very slick fixture Barry. Always a pleasure to see your ingenuity and work. The thing that I find curious, is the choice of the cherries as embellishment. I'm sure they have significance to the client.

Thanks,
Peter

[ron]

hi Barry .. thanks for the bolster info .. I use super glue and glue them down to a piece of 416 SS. steel the only problem I have is cleaning the glue off after engraving , there got to be some kind of clamp system that will work on all sizes of bolsters ,, I too will have to think on it .. ron p

[Vanknife]

Good day Barry & Ron,

Firstly I want to thank you guys for sharing your wonderful creations I do admire the work of the masters a lot. If I may jump in here as far as the bolster Jig, being a knife maker I use this setup to grind and shape the bolsters and if one would make the handle shorter to be able to lock in the ball vice I am sure it will work. bare in mind most of the folding knives I make is takedown knives witch means it is all put together with small UNF 0-80 machine screws.

I hope the sketch explains it self.


Cheers

"VAN"

[powderhorn]

Floorplate Fixture
Guys if you look at the video by Ray Clover, He shows a jig setup for doing the detachable bolsters, using a small piece of plate to screw it down too.
As to getting the hot glue off, before iI Blacken it, I use some heat to get it to turn loose of the mount, then soak it in Acetone for a while. It causes the glue to turn loose and come off easily. Then I blacken as normal.

[ron]

hi Van .. thanks for that info .I am looking for a clamp type jig and your idea can lead to some ideas for it .. ron p.

hi Powderhorn .. I also thank you for your info I will check out Rays vedio .. Ron p

[Jim Wright]

Barry,

A very nice piece of machine work. The fixture is simple yet is easily built and will be re-usable in the future.

Nice design and again a neat job of construction.

Jim Wright