doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Making a straight grip trigger guard, watchouts?

I'm doing a stock project and want to make a straight English style trigger guard from the regular pistol grip one. Any watch outs when TIG welding a piece onto the old one? How about bluing, will the weld area blue the same as the old carbon steel? What have you guys used as a filler so the weld area doesn't stick out like a sore thumb? Any other watch outs? Thanks a bunch. -Joe

Joe,
The weld will very likely show if hot salt blued or maybe carbonia blued (not sure on that one). Rust blue will cover a weld well. I use low carbon steel for welding these things. Make the new tang with some draft angle on the sides to make it easier to inlett. Put the weld/cut in the least visible place. I think it hides best in the radius, but more difficult to match the radius with the new piece. So, the default is to put it right at where the old tang straightens out (the tangent) and then you can make a simple straight new tang.

I mistakenly once used a scrap piece of tool steel to make an extension on a pistol grip guard. Tool steel doesn't rust blue. Make sure the weld area is absolutely free of rust, dirt or oil. Good luck.

Joe,

Chuck pretty well covered the pifalls that I know about...I thought to add this one "watchout"...

"Watchout" for old straight grip muzzleloading trigger guards with that little finial at the front....they can usually be had for around 20 to 35 bucks depending on engraving...they are fairly common and can't be used for much else. (Ebay)

I simply harvest as much of the tang as I need, and was even able to use the engraving to my advantage once...it saves you from having to shape the point and drill/countersink the screw hole...together with the increased likelyhood that the bluing will take properly, makes it worth the extra $25...if you're lucky enough to work in some recycled engraving, then it's really worth the extra effort of hunting one up.

The weld will definitely show with hot salt blue. Don't know with Carbonia. Use a piece of hot rolled 1018/1020 carbon steel and you will not have to wory about warpage. Cold rolled will require annealing or it will warp when machined. Rust blue should cover the weld nicely.

OB

Just this evening , I ordered a Parker straight grip trigger guard from Galazans . It came ready to use with two screws for $65. --- It's cheaper to use theirs than alter an origional in my experience ! All I have to do is inlet same and polish & engrave before carbonia bluing. You might consider doing same. FWIW, Ken

Damn..now why didnt I think of that.

Well Ken tx for your reply. If I were doing up a Parker I might be tempted to get one from Galazans. They only have them in the parker design, the other one they list may be a close copy of a Fox but it doesn't say. Either way I'd rather the old one, modified, not a modern investment cast part. That's why I asked about making one from the old one.

OJ,
The other Galazan triggerguard is a bit smaller than a Fox, although shaped very nicely as I look at it in front of me. It appears to be cold forged from barstock with welded on inner loop false point.

My take on original Fox Sterlingworth triggerguards is that they were mostly poorly shaped loops and false points. I would prefer either a Galazan or make from scratch triggerguard.

Chuck maybe I gave you the wrong idea. I'm not working on a Parker nor Fox. I just mentioned Fox because the other tg Galazan sells is not labeled what it is, but G does make modern Fox guns so most people would assume that's what it is. Tx for both your replies. My stock project is a Syracuse Arms gun.