US2288901A - Lockup construction for firearms - Google Patents

Description

July 7, 1942. F. 'r. GREEN LOCKUP CONSTRUCTION FOR FIREARMS Filed Nov. 21, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet l mveu'ro'n FRANK T. GREEN ATTORNEYS Juiy 7, 1942. T, GREEN I 2,288,901

LOCKUP CONSTRUCTIONIOR FIREARMS Filed Nov. 21, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mimnu INVENTOR FRANK T. GREEN W a W TTTT RNEYS Patented July 7, 1942 LOCKUI CONSTRUCTION FOR FIREARMS Frank T. Green, Chicopee Falls, Mass, assignor to Savage Arms Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application November 21, 1939, Serial No. 305,515

Claims.

This invention relates to fire arms and particularly to the short rear stocks therefor and to the lock-up construction or joint between a relatively short rear stock of a gun and its frame or receiver.

The purpose of my present invention is to provide a rear stock of grainless,homogeneous molded plastic material and to provide a new and improved lock-up construction, that is the joint between a relatively short rear stock the front end of which abuts against a rearward part or at least against rearwardly directed shoulders upon the action-containing frame of the gun.

Heretofore the practically universal practice on the lock-up constructions of this general type of shot guns and rifles has been to provide the forward end of the wood stock with either recesses or projections complementary to and adapted to interfittingly engage recesses or projections upon the rearward part of the action-containing frame or receiver.

One common form of making the forward end of the rear stock interfit with the rear or a rearward part of the frame has been to provide forwardly projecting lugs or parts of the wood spaced inwardly from the opposite sides of the stock and so provide more or less extensive outwardly facing shoulders which engage inwardly facing surfaces upon the sides of the hollow or box-like rear end of the chambered portion of the frame or receiver. The forward end of the stock outside these lugs butted against the rear end of this portion of the frame and then means of various types were provided to draw and hold together the frame and the stock, such means usually engaging a rearward tang or other rearward extension of the frame and extending back into the stock. Due to the inherent weakness in Wood and its possibility of splitting along the grain, these forwardly projecting lugs or other extensions of wood at the front end of the stock to engage within the frame had to be considerable in extent, and practically the laterally-directed faces or shoulders of these lugs had to be fitted by hand-work to the interior faces of the engaged portion of the hollow metal frame. In practice these chambered frames are of cast or forged metal and that method of making frames does not lend itself to these inner stockengaging faces being spaced precisely enough from the outward main side faces of the frame. This possibility of variance in the relative positions of the different fitting surfaces of the frame has resulted in the practice of hand-fitting a given wood stock to one definite metal frame by cutting away as required a little of the wood on I the outward faces of these forward lugs upon the stock and thus making a good permanent but individual and non-interchangeable fit for this pair of parts of a gun. After all the various intermediate steps of manufacture were carried out upon the separated rear stock and the metal frame of this pair, these two members would be brought together and the interior, permanent and non-interchangeable fit formerly made between the frame and the outer surfaces of the lugs on the stock would be supplemented by sanding down the exterior faces (when assembled) of the forward part of the stock to harmonize with the exterior faces or surfaces of the frame until all adjoining exterior faces or surfaces upon the two parts of the pair follow the same contour or are in alignment with each other. Up to this final fitting of the ultimately exterior faces of these two parts an excess of wood has been provided upon the stock and this excess of wood is removed as by suitable sanding operations until the exterior wood faces or surfaces have been brought into alignment or harmonious blend with the adjoining exterior portions of the metal frame, thus making the Wood frame still further individually fitted to this particular frame and so more definitely non-interchangeable with other frames. It may happen as an incident to this sanding operation that a little of the metal of the frame may be removed in places and thus even the frame is shaped slightly to fit its particular rear stock and for the same reason this frame would not make a good smooth fit with a stock which has been previously fitted to another frame. It will be seen that this fitting by hand of an individual stock and frame involves a positive identification of the two parts of this pair and a bringing of those parts together again for the final finishing and assembling and also involves a considerable amount of skilled hand-work and also supervision and records.

One purpose of this present invention is to overcome the disadvantages and extra work and cost of this individual fitting of the two members of a pair of rear stock and frame and this I accomplish by providing a rear stock formed of molded plastic grainless material and having these molded stocks and metal frames so formed and shaped and proportioned and so co-operating that they can be readily placed and fastened together without any hand-fitting or hand-finishing due to there being no appreciable variations in the inter-engaging faces or surfaces or parts of the frames and stocks. In making these stocks by a molded process and the frames by I vide a molded plastic stock of such form, shape and construction that it takes advantage of the inherent strengthand other good qualities of a I molded grainless plastic material and avoids any possible disadvantagesof that material and fur- Y ther to have the co-operating frame of such con-,

struction as to properly combine and interfit with the molded stock so as to produce a lock-up construction that is simple and economical to-manufacture, easily assembled, not liable to break or get out of order but where the parts; are readily detachable if required. Afurther purpose of this invention is to pro vide a firearm stock made of molded grainless plasticmaterial of. homogeneous structure and shaped to form part of an improved lock-up construction. Such material is of greater strength inseveral ways than wood and is freefrom the liability that wood has of splitting along its grain and free from several troublesome charac- 'teristics that wood has, such as warping, shrinking and expanding- This molded plastic material is not only easily made into the precise size 1 and shape of a stock by a molding process without any hand fitting but when a stock is thus made of that material, the stock is free from splitting and is permanent or stable in size and shapeandfree from warping, shrinking'and expanding and so is admirably adapted to form a stock'that is interchangeable with any one of a series of similar, definitely and precisely formed frames. named as well as for other reasons actuallycompelled an individual hand-made and non-interchangeable fitting between each pair of a frame and a stock while the molded plastic grainless stock provides a stock that can be made by machinery and with machine precision so that any one of an entire series of stocks will with assurance be interchangeable with a standard machine finished frame.

While there are still limits to the strength of this molded grainless plastic material, its strength and stability are so much greater than wood, that a thoroughly practicable and interchangeable lock-up construction can be made between a frame and a rear stock of molded grainless plastic material and one of the purposes of and bind together the forward edges and the usually bifurcated front end of the rear stock.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the frame or receiver of one type of 'gun and the forward end of the rear stock therefor embodying this invention.

Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the rear half of the frame shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and Fig. 4 is a top view thereof.

Fig. 5 is a combined side elevation and sectional View on line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is an isometric View of the forward part of the rear stock separately.

Fig. '7 is a cross-sectional view on line 1 1 of The wooden stock for the reasons above Fig. 3 and so shows a rear elevation of the rear end of the frame but without its tang portions. Referring to the, drawings accompanying this ,barrel shot gun having a breakdown action but embodying the lock-up construction of my present' invention.

the conventional double-barreled gun shown herein but is also applicable to a conventional single-barreled shot gun of that general type and to over and under double-barreled shot guns and rifles, to slide-action pump guns and automatic shot guns and rifles and to all types of guns wherein the rear stock is separate and apart from the forward part of the gun.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description, it will be seen that there is shown. the action-holding frame or receiver it] and the forward part of the rear stock I the fastening together of which two partsare commonly called,

in the art, a lock-up construction. As plainly shownin the severalviewsthereof, Figs. 1 to 5,

the frame IE! consists of the breech portion I2,

the body portion I3 extending forwardlytherefrom andthe tang [4 extending rearwardly from the. back end of the breech portion. The body portion receives thereabove the rearend of the thereto the fore-end iron which makes a swinging joint with the front end of the body portion and atits forward end has fastened theretothe fore stock, all of well-known construction not needed to be further indicated or described herein. Rearward of the breech face itself the breech I2 is a hollow or chambered member which houses the hammer, trigger and certain other parts of the action of the gun. The rear end of this breech portion l2 particularly is a more or less rectangular shaped hollow box a rear elevation of which is shown in Fig. 7 and provides several transversely extending faces hereinafter more particularly and separately described, but which together form the surfaces against which the more or less complementaryshaped faces upon the front end of the stock H abut or engage.

As already suggested the .rear stock H is formed by a molding process of grainless plastic material. In the particular type of gun shown in Figs. 1 to 7 the forward end of the stock is bifurcated or provided with a deep vertically extending recess l5 leaving right and left hand arms l6 and I1. This vertically extending recess I 5 is to receive the particular form of tang l l shown as extending rearwardly from the frame ill. The forward ends of the two arms it and I! provide several transverse faces to abut against the plurality of transverse faces already mentioned as being at the rear end of the boxlike portion of the breech l2. The detail construction of these transverse faces upon the stock will be described hereafter together with the adjacent laterally directed shoulders upon the stock and the up and down facing shoulders upon the sides of the stock which shoulders have an inter-engaging action with complementary formed or shaped shoulders upon the rear end of the box-like breech Hi, the co-operation of which will be hereafter described. The tang of the form of frame shown in Figs. 1 to 7 consists of an upper tang H], a lower tang 19 both pro- It will be understood that my lock-up construction is not limited to use. with I jecting rearwardly from the central portion of the breech portion [2 and at their rearward end connected by a preferably integrally-formed bridge 20. The space between the upper and lower tangs l8 and I9 and forward of the bridge 20 forms part of the space for housing within the chamber of the frame member certain parts of the action of the gun. In some types of gun the part I have already referred to as the lower tang i9 and the bridge 20 is a separate portion but locked at its front end to the breech member and at the rear having its bridge portion locked to the rear end of the upper tang and in such constructions this separate piece is called a trigger plate. In the bridge portion of the tang whether integral or unitary as just mentioned there is provided a longitu'dnally extending centrally disposed threaded hole 2| into which is screw-threaded the forward end of the retaining bolt-locating lug 22 the rear and main por tion of which is of larger diameter and fits closely into a correspondingly diametered hole 23 provided in the adjacent portion of the stock H. In the rear end of this lug is provided a centrally located threaded hole 24 adapted to receive the screw-threaded forward end of the retaining bolt 25 which extends rearwardly through a hole 25 provided in the body of the stock and extending to the generally transverse face 21' against which face sets an apertured pressure plate 28 of sumcient area to distribute the strain over a considerable portion of the face 2?. The head 29 of the retaining bolt 25 bears against the plate 28 and by rotation of this bolt in an obvious manner the lock-up construction is completed and the frame [0 and the rear stock H are securely held together.

It will be understood that the somewhat specific description of abutting transverse faces upon the frame member and upon the forward end of the rear stock and the oppositely disposed and interengaging longitudinal shoulders, including upon the rearward end of the frame inwardly directed shoulders, upwardly directed shoulders and downwardly directed shoulders engaging oppositely placed and directed shoulders upon the forward ends of the rear stock arms are only illustrative of one good and practical form of this invention and such description of specific faces and shoulders is not to be taken as a limitation upon the invention or as limiting the invention to the particular form of faces and shoulders shown in the drawings and described in this specification further than required by the claims herein. In other words the inveniion may be said to reside in providing a frame member ordinarily of metal and that can have its rear end accurately machined so as to provide transverse faces and a series of inwardly facing shoulders and oppositely disposed upwardly and downwardly facing shoulders all accurately made and so located that the transverse faces upon the said frame will abut against oppositely located transverse faces upon the forward ends of the rear stock arms and so that the inwardly directed shoulders upon the frame will engage and interfit and interlock with outwardly directed shoulders near the forward ends of the arms of the rear stock so as to prevent spreading of the said arms and in fact, bind the arms tightly and properly in place and furthermore so that the pairs of oppositely located downwardly and upwardly facing shoulders upon the rear end of the box-like frame will interlock with complementary upwardly and ill ' closely engage similar but downwardly facing shoulders upon the said ends of the arms of the rear stock so as to prevent any relative upward or downward movement of the rear stock or of the frame relative to the other member.

Bearing in mind the foregoing generalization of the construction of the invention I will now describe the specific form of the parts shown in Figs. 1 to '7, which is a thoroughly practical and my now preferred form of the invention.

As best shown in Fig. 6, the right hand and left hand arms or prongs l6 and ll of the rearstock have at their front upper portions immediately next to the recess [5 transverse faces 39-39 which bear directly against correspondingly located transverse rearwardly directed faces 3l-3I upon the upper portion of the frame If] immediately neXt or to the outside of the upper tang portion [8, as best shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 7. Similarly the lower front portions of the arms It and H have forwardly directed faces 32-32 which are intended to and when the parts are assembled do abut intimately against similarly but oppositely located rearwardly directed faces 3333 upon the lower portion of the rear end of the frame 99 immediately outside of the lower tang portion is. As the parts are shown in the drawings these cooperating pairs of faces are flush with each other upon the outside of the assembled frame and rear stock but the faces upon the rear stock may be a little greater in vertical extent, which, it will be obvious, tends to strengthen the rear stock parts in that the rear stock as already intimated .is of molded plastic material which although very strong does not have per square inch of area the strength that is present in the metallic frame H).

Besides the pair of transverse faces upon the frame inthe rear stock just mentioned, there are several sets of longitudinal shoulders upon both parts. First there are four longitudinally extending inwardly facing shoulders upon the rearward end of the frame, namely a shoulder 3 c, at the upper right hand corner of the frame as shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 7 immediately next to the face 35 and extending rearwardly therefrom, and a similar shoulder 34 provided upon the lower right hand corner of the frame next to the lower right hand transverse face 33. This pair of inwardly directed shoulders 34, are intended to and do directly interfit with the outwardly facing rearwardly extending shoulder 35 provided respectively upon the right hand upper and lower corners of the right hand rear stock arm l5, and which shoulders extend rearwardly from their meeting line with the transverse faces 30 already mentioned. Similarly there are inwardly directed longitudinally extending shoulders 35-3B upon the upper and lower portions respectively of the left hand side of the frame, which shoulders extend forwardly from the transverse faces 3! as most plainly appears in Figs. 2, f and 7. These shoulders at are intended to and do outwardly facing shoulders 3l31 extending on the left hand arm I? of the rear stock from the upper transverse face 35 and the lower transverse face 32. It will now be seen that these two pairs of shoulders E- i34 and 3635 upon the frame bear inwardly against the outwardly facing shoulders 35 and 37 on the arms of the rear stock and so through the greater strength of the metallic frame operate to reinforce the bifurcated front end of the rear stock and practically overcome any tendency of the said forestock to be spread apart by any strain placed thereon. While the shoulders and 31 are not extensive longitudinally of the rear stock there is sufficient area in these shoulders to make a positive engagement with the corresponding shoulders upon the frame and so accomplish the purpose of holding these two members, namely the frame and the rear stock, from displacement relative to each other.

Stepped rearwardly from the upper transverse faces 3| on the frame there are provided upon the right hand and left hand corners additional transverse faces 38 which begin at the shoulders 34 and 36 and extend respectively outwardly at the two corners to the level of the exterior side face 40 of the frame and exactly match similar but oppositely located, that is forwardly directed, faces 39 upon the upper corners of the two arms of the rear stock. These faces 39 begin at the shoulders 35 and 31 respectively and extend out to the level of the outer sides 4| of the front portion of the rear stock.

Stepped rearwardly from the lower transverse faces 33 on the frame there are provided upon the right hand and left hand corners of the frame additional transverse faces 42 which begin at the shoulders 34 and 36 respectively and extend outwardly at the two corners to the level of the exterior side face 40 of the frame and exactly match similar but oppositely located, that is forwardly directed, faces 4343 upon the lower corners of the two arms of the rear stock. These faces 43 begin at the shoulders 35 and 3'! respectively and extend out to the level of the outer sides 4| of the front portion of the rear stock.

Between these corner transverse faces 38 and 42 upon the upper and lower corners respectively of the frame at its rear end there is provided a still further transverse face 44, which is offset forwardly from said faces 38 and 42 and. spaced therefrom somewhat by upper and lower slanting surfaces 45 and 46 respectively, as most plainly appears in Figs. 1 and 5. The upper slanting surfaces 45, it will be seen, in the main extend downwardly while lower slanting surfaces 46 in the main face upwardly. These three faces just described have their counterpart of similar shape and arrangement, on the right hand side of the frame, namely the transverse face 44 and the upper slanting face 45 and the lower slanting face 46, as best appears in the rear elevation of the frame member shown in Fig. 7. The transverse face 44 on the left hand side of the frame exactly fits and abuts against a transverse face 47 upon the left hand side of the left arm 16 of the rear stock located intermediate the upper and lower transverse faces 39 and 43 and spaced forwardly therefrom to the same extent as is the transverse face 47 spaced forwardly from the transverse faces 38 and 42 on the frame. Upon the left hand side of the left hand arm ll of the rear stock there is provided a slanting portion 48 extending from the face 4! up to the transverse face 39, and similarly a lower slanting portion 49 extending from the main face 41 downwardly to the face 43 on the lower left hand corner of said arm 11. These faces 48 and 49 fit accurately against the upper and lower faces respectively 45 and 46 on the frame as directly appears from the side elevation of these parts when assembled as shown in Fig. 1. Upon the right side of the right hand arm of the rear stock I6 there are provided a similar forwardly offset transverse forwardly directed face 4'! and a rearwardly slanting upwardly facing slanting portion 48 and a downward portion 49 also slanting downwardly and fitting respectively the transverse faces 44 and the upwardly slanting and upwardly located face 45 on the frame and the lower located and downwardly slanting face 46 upon the frame, in an obvious manner similarly to the fitting of these faces as shown in Fig. 1. It will now be seen that the transverse faces 44 upon the frame abut against the forwardly directed faces 4'! upon the arms of the rear stock and that through the face 44 being offset forwardly as appears in Fig. 5, and the face 41 on the rear stock being offset forwardly the faces 44, 45 and 46 in effect form a mortise into which fits the tenon consisting of the upper face 48, middle face 4'! and lower face 49 on the rear stock, and thus the rear stock is firmly anchored to the rear face of the frame and is prevented from relative movement upwardly or downwardly as to the frame [6. It may be noted that the slanting faces 45 are the equivalent of longitudinal faces to the extent that they slant forwardly and face downwardly and thus interlock with the oppositely slanting but longitudinally arranged faces 43 on the rear stock. Similarly the slanting faces 46 upon the frame I!) are the equivalent of longitudinal faces directed upwardly against the downwardly facing but slanting faces 49 upon the rear stock.

It will be understood that it is possible to accurately machine the gun frame use-d in this lock-up construction and to accurately cut the recesses for the lock-up device and maintain a constant relationship between them. This is possible since all of the surfaces of the frame are machined from a constant locating point and it is not necessary to depend on the inner cored section for locating any of the outside cuts.

By molding the stock in a die with plastic material it was possible to accurately maintain all of the dimensions on it so that the stock may be fitted to the frame and have the outer dimensions of both frame and stock conform at all points and also to have the interfitting portions whether mortise-like or tenon-like portions upon the rear stock accurately and permanently fit similar accurate and permanent mortise-like or tenon-like projections on recesses formed upon the frame. This invention thus insures interchangeability of a standard frame member with a standard rear stock member and thus there is no preliminary fitting or finishing of the two separate parts and there will be no finishing of the parts either separately or together that would destroy interchangeability of the standard frame member and standard rear stock member constructed as disclosed in this invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a lock-up construction for firearms the combination of a box-like rigid metallic frame open at its rear end and housing part of the action of the gun and having a vertically disposed, centrally arranged rearwardly extending tang, said fram having at its rear end at each side of said tang, upper and lower transversely extending, main contact faces and further out from the tang and more rearwardly located relative to each main contact face a secondary transversely extending, vertically arranged contact face and between each pair of said adjacent transverse faces a longitudinally extending, vertically arranged step facing towards the near outwardly directed portion of said tang, the rear faces of the tWo sides of said box-like frame having their central portions stepped forwardly from said secondary transverse contact faces and forming a third set of transversely extending vertically arranged contact faces which are connected at their upper and lower ends respectively to said secondary contact faces by longitudinally extending upwardly and downwardly directed portions, a rear stock having its front portion bifurcated forming two spaced prongs and therebetween a vertically disposed central recess into which closely fits said tang, the forward end of each prong having transversely extending and vertically arranged contact faces complementary to and interfitting with the said faces on the rearward part of said frame on the opposite sides of said tang, and means drawing together said interengaging faces of the frame and stock.

2. In a lock-up construction for firearms the combination of a box-like, rigid metallic frame open at its rear end and housing part of the action of the gun and having a vertically disposed, centrally arranged rearwardly extending tang, said frame having at its rear end at each side of said tang, upper and lower transversely extending, main contact faces and further out from the tank and more rearwardly located relative to each main contact face, a secondary transversely extending Vertically arranged contact face and between each pair of said adjacent transverse faces a longitudinally extending vertically arranged step facing towards the near outwardly directed portion of said tang, the rear faces of the two sides of said box-like frame having their central portions stepped forwardly from said second ary transverse contact faces and forming a third set of transversely extending vertically arranged contact faces which are connected at their upper and lower ends respectively to said secondary contact faces by longitudinally extending upwardly and downwardly directed portions, a rear stock having its front portion bifurcated forming two spaced prongs and therebetween a vertically disposed central recess into which closely fits said tang, the forward end of each prong having transversely extending and vertically arranged contact faces complementary to and interfitting with the said faces on the rearward part of said frame on the opposite sides of said tang, and means drawing together said interengaging faces of the frame and stock, said longitudinally extending vertically arranged steps facing towards the tang and engaging outwardly directed surfaces near the forward ends of the prongs of the stock and holding the said prongs from outward movement.

3. In a lock-up construction for firearms the combination of a box-like, rigid metallic frame open at its rear end and housing part of the action of the gun and having a vertically disposed, centrally arranged rearwardly extending tang, said frame having at its rear end at each side of said tang, upper and lower transversely extending, main contact faces and further out from the tang and more rearwardly located relative to each main contact face, a secondary transversely extending vertically arranged contact face and between each pair of said adjacent transverse faces a longitudinally extending vertically arranged step facing towards the near outwardly directed portion of said tang, the rear faces of the two sides of said box-like frame having their central portions stepped forwardly from said secondary transverse contact faces and forming a third set of transversely extending nected at their upper and lower ends respectively to said secondary contact faces by longitudinally extending upwardly and downwardly directed portions, a rear stock having its front portion bifurcated forming two spaced prongs and therebetween a vertically disposed central recess into which closely fits said tang, the forward end of each prong having transversely extending and vertically arranged contact faces complementary to and interfitting with the said faces on the rearward part of said frame on the opposite sides of said tang, and means drawing together said interengaging faces of the frame and stock, said longitudinally extending vertically arranged steps facing towards the tang and engaging outwardly directed surfaces near the forward ends of the prongs of the stock and holding the said prongs from outward movement and preventing relative lateral movement between the front end of said stock and the rear end of the frame.

4. In a lock-up construction for firearms the combination of a box-like, rigid metallic frame open at its rear end and housing part of the action of the gun and having a vertically disposed, centrally arranged rearwardly extending tang, said frame having at its rear end at each side of said tang, upper and lower transversely extending, main contact faces and further out from the tang and more rearwardly located relative to each main contact face, a secondary transversely extending vertically arranged contact face and between each pair of said adjacent transverse faces a longitudinally extending vertically arranged step facing towards the near outwardly directed portion of said tang, the rear faces of the two sides of said box-like frame having their central portions stepped forwardly from said secondary transverse contact faces and forming a third set of transversely extending vertically arranged contact faces which are connected at their upper and lower ends respectively to said secondary contact faces by longitudinally extending upwardly and downwardly directed portions, a rear stock having its front portion bifurcated forming two spaced prongs and therebetween a vertically disposed central recess into which closely fits said tang, the forward end of each prong having transversely extending and vertically arranged contact faces complementary to and interfitting with the said faces on the rearward part of said frame on the opposite sides of said tang, and means drawing together said interengaging faces of the frame and stock, the said longitudinally extending steps between said third set of contact faces and said secondary contact faces on the frame preventing relative up and down movement between the front end of the stock and the rear end of the frame.

5. In a lock-up construction for firearms the combination of a box-like rigid metallic frame open at its rear end and housing part of the action of the gun and having a vertically disposed, centrally arranged rearwardly extending tang, said frame having at its rear end at each side of said tang, upper and lower transversely extending, main contact faces and further out from the tang and more rearwardly located relative to each main contact face, a secondary transversely extending, vertically arranged contact face and between each pair of said adjacent transverse faces a longitudinally extending, vertically arranged step facing towards the near outwardly directed portion of said tang, the rear vertically arranged contact faces which are confaces of the two sides of said box-like frame having their central portions stepped forwardly from said secondary transverse contact faces and forming a third set of transversely extending vertically arranged contact faces which are connected at their upper and lower ends respectively to said secondary contact faces by longitudinally extending upwardly and downwardly directed portions, a rear stock having its front portion bifurcated forming two spaced prongs and therebetween a vertically disposed central recess into which closely fits said tang, the forward end of each prong having transversely extending and vertically arranged contact faces complementary to and interfitting with the'said faces on the rearward part of said frame on the opposite sides of said tang, said main, said secondary and said third set of contact faces on the rear end of the frame by engaging their respective complementary contact faces on the front end of said stock forming interengaging pairs of contact surfaces extending all around the periphery of said meeting ends of the frame and of the stock, and means drawing together said interengaging faces of the frame and stock.

FRANK T. GREEN.

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