doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Original Buttplates and Grip caps

Raimey, those old radios are highly collectible, as is old Bakelite jewelry etc. Of course , some buttplates must have been made of Bakelite after 1907 or so when the inventor sought a patent and as is shown in your interesting reference. It would be interesting to know the composition of the buttplate materials from 1880 or so.

Interesting questions! If I remember, many of the first materials were searching for diaelectric properties, and regidity.I think the Pheon and formaldehyde and urea and formaldehyde ended up in the electrical industry mainly. I would bet that DuPont has an in house librarian that can answer some of the questions.
Craig

I would guess that the early ones were of some hard rubber plant mixture or a mixture of mica and some secretions from the ole shellac bug:
http://books.google.com/books?id=RJun1eW...bug&f=false

& H.E. Shepard, New Haven, Ct. - 1874
http://books.google.com/books?id=yq4KAQA...lac&f=false


Kind Regards,

Raimey

Daryl, does Remington still have all of their old records, or that matter any of the old gun manufactures records. There might be information there where they bought them.

I don't know about the Remington records. I do know they say they do not have records of the Model 1894 guns, but your thought is a good one.

Mike Hunter, do you have any current contact info for Vintage Industries? I can't find a website for them and the phone number I found is disconnected. Thanks.

I am somewhat suspicious that the reference in the article to "imported rubber buttplates" may have referred to the imported rubber recoil pads from the S.W. Silver Company in England who supplied Parker Brothers with their products. I doubt (somewhat) that Parker Brothers couldn't have handled the domestic procurement or manufacture of a hard rubber buttplate. Early Parker Brothers order books indicate that the Silvers recoil pad is not always referred to as a recoil pad, but it often is referred to as a "recoil butt" and the hard rubber item we now refer to as a buttplate was referred to as a "rubber butt". No specific terminology for either item was used until much later than 1907. By "specific terminology", I mean terminology that would indicate to the layman exactly what they were talking about.

Daryl, this site carries all kinds of grips, and I believe I have seen the Vintage ones on this site also.
http://www.gungrip.com/index.php?cPath=29&sort=4a&page=2

Looks like Vintage Industries was absorbed by another company, but the new company still offers injection molded Buttplates & Grips.

Here is the number 407 333 2350

As to the composition of early Buttplates & gripcaps, my guess would be that they were made out of Gutta percha. I know that the early Colt grips were made out of this material, as well as an early insulation for telegraph wires, golf balls, furniture, jewelry etc. A very popular hard rubber type product. One of the cool things about Gutta Percha is that if you gently heat it, it can be easily bent, great for fitting to curved buttstocks.

Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations

Here's the web site for the DuPont Company's historical library:

http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/