Tell me more! Gun stocks..

Mrs. V

1st Lieutenant
Joined
May 5, 2017
I had someone ask me this question today, with regard to some cherry wood being sold on a CW site...what type of wood was used in gun stocks? I thought maybe oak or ash? I would think a hardwood...I don’t know, but I bet someone here does!
 
Walnut was mostly used. Here is a great thread we had on this subject.
 
Walnut was mostly used. Here is a great thread we had on this subject.
Thank you!
 
I was told by my Daddy that the gun which was brought back from the war by an ancestor ( he traded his army issued gun for the one we have) was considered poor man’s tiger maple on the stock.
A cotton string was dipped into kerosene, wrapped around the stock and then set on fire. Once the areas were sanded down and oiled it gave the illusion of a piece of finer quality tiger maple.

Is this just a fun story or is there any truth to it?
I’ve always wondered and would be interested to hear what the experts on the site think .
 
I was told by my Daddy that the gun which was brought back from the war by an ancestor ( he traded his army issued gun for the one we have) was considered poor man’s tiger maple on the stock.
A cotton string was dipped into kerosene, wrapped around the stock and then set on fire. Once the areas were sanded down and oiled it gave the illusion of a piece of finer quality tiger maple.

Is this just a fun story or is there any truth to it?
I’ve always wondered and would be interested to hear what the experts on the site think .
That is how tiger stripes have been added to plain wooden stocks that do not have much "figure" in them. I do believe that there are some stocks modified this way that have turned up a time or two on the forums.

Some very high quality maple wood, and other types of wood, can really produce a wonderful looking grain and figure in the wood.
 
Walnut is the first choice for many European military arms as well. And since walnut trees are not that common in England, where did Birmingham Small Arms Trade get the hundreds of thousands walnut gunstocks they needed? W. Scott & Son owned a sawmill operation in Turin, Italy and that is where a large number of walnut stocks came from.
 
Also, kind of a minor point about seasoning the wood used for gunstocks... on many Birmingham Small Arms Trade Enfields you will notice a slight shrinkage near the "toe" where the buttplate extends slightly past the wood. The slight shrinkage is from heating the wood gunstocks to speed up the seasoning process. You do not normally find this shrinkage on Enfields produced by London gunmakers.
 
all CW Springfield guns were American walnut. Beach is used on Italian imports. they call it European walnut.
NOT. Cherry was used in New England long rifles because it was available. the best walnut was from Europe.
Circassian, French, and even British . but American straight grain was the go to wood for US arms.
I was in the furniture trade for 30 years, was an apprentice for my uncle for four years in furniture finishing, and
did antique gun restorations for 25 years. Never saw a US military gun with anything other than Walnut.
NOW. that is not counting custom Sharps, Colts, etc, that were ordered that way. Ken
 
American Walnut, usually. Although Remington Zouave rifles used fruit wood, that's why the stock had the bright appearance that led to the name.
Whoa Nellie!!!! The 1863 Remington Rifle had a walnut stock and the first reference to it being a Zouave Rifle was from Bannerman, who purchased the 10,000 for .54 cents each. They marketed the rifles as Zouave since at that time it was all the "rage" across America and Europe. Simply a marketing ploy.
 
That is how tiger stripes have been added to plain wooden stocks that do not have much "figure" in them. I do believe that there are some stocks modified this way that have turned up a time or two on the forums.

Some very high quality maple wood, and other types of wood, can really produce a wonderful looking grain and figure in the wood.
Using string and burning is a myth. To get the artficial striping it was PAINTED ON.
In some cases India ink was used. Henry Leman used this method on his "trade rifles" made for the Indian and trader/trapper market. There was no reason to do this on military stocks. Now for what its worth Swedish and some Danish military stocks were made of PINE which sounds insane considering how soft some pine is. But it was probably a case of "use what you got". I've read that some European musket stocks were made of OAK and judging from some pieces I've examined this was true. (Not all of them did)
 
Mostly it was walnut that was used but I'm sure that any hardwood could be used if there is a shortage. Now some woods you can stain it to look like a totally different wood altogether if know what your doing.
 
Whoa Nellie!!!! The 1863 Remington Rifle had a walnut stock and the first reference to it being a Zouave Rifle was from Bannerman, who purchased the 10,000 for .54 cents each. They marketed the rifles as Zouave since at that time it was all the "rage" across America and Europe. Simply a marketing ploy.

I could have sworn I read somewhere it was fruitwood...although it was many years ago, so maybe I'm imagining it, misremembering, or it wasn't a very good source. lol
 
Mostly it was walnut that was used but I'm sure that any hardwood could be used if there is a shortage. Now some woods you can stain it to look like a totally different wood altogether if know what your doing.
Certainly for U.S. army and militia musket and rifle stocks the Ordnance manuals such as that of 1841 were quite specific about the use of black walnut and how long the wood had to be seasoned, the grain, absence of knots, etc. etc.
 
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