In the early 1840s, the Austrian Army [k.k. Army] began transforming its hundreds of thousands of flintlock muskets to tubelock, which required new stocks. Given the number of flintlock arms to be transformed, there was not enough air dried red beech wood in all of Europe to manufacture the number of new stocks required. Consequently, Baron von Augustin decided to use the newly invented [1830] French method of drying fresh wood by exposing it to superheated steam [kiln drying]. Consequently, kiln dried wood was used in Muster 1842 muskets; Muster 1844 Extra Corps carbines; Muster 1844 and 1849
Kammerbüchse; and Muster 1854, Type I and II, rifle muskets.
Unless it is carefully kiln dried, red beech is particularly susceptible to checking or cracking during and after drying. Many checks in lumber are difficult to locate because they may close up in the later stages of drying, and some checks extend longer and deeper into the wood than can be seen with the naked eye. Since drying at high temperatures promotes checking, drying hardwoods like red beech requires a gentle process with lower temperature and higher relative humidity. Since the French process was newly invented, these technical requirements may not have been immediately understood by the k.k. Army and the contractors who provided the Army’s stock wood. By contrast, Springfield Armory had refused to use kiln dried wood prior to the Civil War. Its Pennsylvania and Maryland walnut stock blanks were air dried for at least three years. This consequently raises the question of where the contractors who made Springfield rifle muskets during the Civil War obtained their stock blanks and the resulting quality of those stock blanks. There are examples that the problem may have existed throughout the war:
- F. L. Bodine wrote to BG Ripley on 15 January 1862. He had received a contract for 25,000 Springfield rifle muskets on 12 December 1861, but was unable to obtain air dried walnut. Consequently, he proposed to substitute kiln dried wood, provided he could obtain wood comparable to that used at the Springfield Armory.
- A. W. Burt wrote to BG Ramsey on 19 January 1864, complaining that the insolvency of Trenton Arms had left him with no source of stocks for his Springfield rifle musket production, although he had all the metallic parts he required. He requested the loan of 5,000 stock blanks from Springfield Armory to resolve the problem.
The Confederates also used kiln drying in their arms manufacture. On 15 February 1864 COL Burton wrote to one of his master armorers that he was anticipating the arrival of a supply of unseasoned gun stocks at the Macon Arsenal, and “it will be necessary to provide some means of desiccating them. I think this can best be accomplished by a steaming process, similar to that formerly practiced at the H. Henry Armory. At least this will be the most
expeditious, if not the best process. You will therefore at once take steps to erect a suitable apparatus for this purpose, and locate it at some point near the boiler & Engine House at the Temporary Armory.” In a subsequent letter to BG Gorgas, Burton advised him of the order and wrote that he was trying to obtain a supply of walnut planks.
In looking at original Civil War weapons, one will frequently find cracks and spits in the wood. A flawed understanding of the kiln drying process accounts for the problem. Later, the Swedes and Swiss used kiln dried European red beech in their Mauser and k31 rifles without problems, but by then process was much better understood.
Regards,
Don Dixon