I suspect that these butt plates had quite a generous manufacturing tolerance on the overall size of the profile and I doubt they were even measured before leaving the factory. Probably after casting any roughness/unevenness was removed and then it would have been drilled, tapped etc etc followed by a final buff/polish.
You can be rest assured that there will have been a tight and enforced spec, right down to the exact composition of the brass and the steel axis pin, finish and exact distance between the holes.
Here's an option for the OP. Send me your new butt and I'll hand select a used but excellent condition Lithgow buttplate to fit. I've got a good supply now but the bulk are going to England on export so don't wait too long if you want one.
This thread prompted me to have a look at my rifles to make a comparrison. The butt plate on a 1921 Lithgow with short butt is identical in size to the butt plate on a 1921 Lithgow with long butt. So in the case of the butts on my lithgows, there's an extension in length of 1 inche, but the end profile remains the same. Interesting, I never thought that was the case.
Peter, do you think that the tight spec that you mention would include the size of the outside profile, please, or would it just be what it came out as after casting?
I would imagine that there was even a spec for the outside profile/edge that would have been linished to size and blemish free. Everything had a spec. It would be chaotic without
To support Capt. Laidler's assertion, there are numerous stories of British Inspectors holding manufacturers to very tight tolerances and standards throughout the histories of the Winchester and Remington contracts for the P-14 rifles in WWI and the Long Branch and Savage-Stevens manufacture of the No.4 MkI* rifles. This is not just an Enfield issue. The inter-changeability of parts was critical for M1 Carbines, with a dozen prime contractors and scores of subcontracting parts suppliers who resupplied other prime contractors if inventories ran low. The same thing happened during the evolution of the Rolls Royce Merlin engines -- the US standard of inter-changeability was actually higher than the British standard, which enabled faster mass production.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler