doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Worthen Grip Cap

In volume 1 of our text book, Michael noted that all the Worthen rifles that he had examined had a oval recess in the grip cap and he was unsure what had originally been in the recess. In volume II, he reports that he was able to determine that Barney Worthen put a silver monogram plate in the center of the grip cap.

As the owner of a Worthen rifle with a vacant oval, I thought I'd try to restore my grip cap by installing a new silver plate. I first cleaned out the oval of any remaining glue, and tried to determine how deep it was.

Looked like about .050. Checking a few jewelry making supply houses on the web, I was able to discover that 18 ga sheet silver was .041" thick. I figured this should work while allowing a little thickness for the glue so a small piece was ordered. The first step was to cut out a paper template to transfer to the silver sheet.

I then transferred it onto a sierra bullets load data sticker and stuck that onto the sheet. The recess was not perfectly symmetrical, so an arrow was drawn so I would know which end was the front.

Aviation shears were then used to cut the rough shape.

Then it was just slowly filing the edges while constantly checking the fit in the grip cap. Finally a good fit was achieved.


The silver was then glued in the recess. I just used some superglue gel. No pictures as I did not want to have my phone glued to my fingers. I took a fine file to a piece of ebony to get some black saw dust and rubbed it around the edge of the silver plate while the glue was still wet to try to fill any small gaps so that they would match the horn grip cap.

The recess must have been a little deeper on one side than the other as I ended up with the silver a couple thou below flush on one side, and slightly proud on the other. A little work with a file and then some 220 grit smoothed everything out.


A little more polishing with progressively finer paper and all looks good.

The horn is very soft, so I sanded it very lightly to remove any excess glue, and then polished it out. A good buffing with a little linseed oil made everything blend in nicely and made it look like it has been there for the last 80 years.

I bought some extra silver sheet in case I screwed up, so I have enough left to do at least 2 more grip. If anyone has a Worthen rifle that needs a new monogram plate in the grip, let me know and I'll be glad to drop a piece of plate in the mail to you.

Regards,
John

Looks great John. Pretty close to the way I'd do it and replacing something so obviously missing is a worthy accomplishment for any vintage rifle.
I've got a fine 16 ga. sxs shotgun missing the monogram plate the entire 15-18 years I've owned it. Thanks for your offer but materials I do not lack...

Have you ever heard of shellac flakes? I've got some but have never used them. The notion is to make the plate removable with a little heat, but I don't know if heat would work with horn? or even how to use the flake shellac? Maybe why the Worthen plate fell out?
Perhaps a project for Dan one of these days?

I believe shellac can be used as a hot glue, softening and melting under 200*F. Stock repair shellac sticks might be an example. I have no idea if it would work, but horn may be okay with an adhesive around that temp.

That may have been what was used originally, I guess next time I'll see if the old glue can be dissolved with alcohol.

That is the one thing I do not like is that the grip cap can not readily be removed and reinstalled.

John

Nice job of work!

You probably used the best glue for the task, IMO. I would've probably used epoxy, but who knows which is better. The main concern with any glue would be the disparity of materials and how they react with each other and the glue when subjected to extremes of temperature. (Since the gun probably won't see a snowy cold day in the woods ever again, it's likely a moot point.) May well be why the original plate fell out.

Thinking some more, I thought of using 3M 5200 bedding compound. It's a substance we used as an adhesive/bedding compound when attaching deck fittings, etc. when I worked in the marine industry. It comes in squeeze tubes (in different colors) as well as caulk gun tubes, and I'm here to tell you it is some nasty tenacious stuff and it remains ever so slightly elastic, allowing for movement of the disparate materials.

This one is a .22 Hornet, I hope that the only thing it sees is a sunny June afternoon taking care of the local woodchuck population.

John

I remember pictures in a thread by Michael that showed the remainder of the glue. It had an amber color to it and something tells me that it may be as Steve describes as shelac flakes. The ability to remove with the screw underneath makes sense. I have the only Worthen I have ever run on to with the plate intact in the grip. I have never seen another type on a Worthen. It also does not have the ball detent installed. Michael thought that it must have been an early gun and a non-take down. I will try to get a picture or two up. Nice job John!