- Joined
- Feb 18, 2013
- Location
- Hoover, Alabama
At the height of British Arms manufacturing, entire forests in Europe were under contract to British Arms manufacturers for stocks and artillery carriages.
I gave up trying to build my rifle. I was being tutored by an experienced hobbyist who had restocked two dozen bolt-action rifles. He knew how to sharpen his carving knives. He made me a scraper with a bent point out of a piano wire, I think it was. Once he moved away, I had to hire TVM to finish my project.The first thing I learned in stock building is how to sharpen tools, and I spend as much time re-sharpening the various tools as I do working on a stock. When I work on a section of stock that's hard, I find that the mistakes I made could have been avoided if my tools were sharper.
I can see right now why you couldn't finish the rifle, it's got the wrong type of hammer on it. How in the world could that thing hold a flint? (I'm a flintlock man when it comes to old guns).I gave up trying to build my rifle. I was being tutored by an experienced hobbyist who had restocked two dozen bolt-action rifles. He knew how to sharpen his carving knives. He made me a scraper with a bent point out of a piano wire, I think it was. Once he moved away, I had to hire TVM to finish my project.
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The wood used for muskets was supposed to be walnut.Were most muskets made from the same type of wood? Being from Michigan I know that huge amounts of lumber from Michigan was being sold to the Federal government, but I am not sure of the mix of hard woods and pine. My next question is, did wood have to season before it could be used in muskets?
Yes, the wood had to be seasoned, officially.The wood used for muskets was supposed to be walnut.
That's cool that you're hand-making stocks. I'm guessing American walnut was going to Europe because they exhausted their supplies of hardwoods? I know access to the right wood was often a big determinant of naval power throughout history. I've never read about gunstocks in this regard though.American walnut was shipped to Europe by the boat load. I've seen pics on this forum of British or European rifles that looked like they were stocked in American walnut. The open grain of American walnut is distinctive and not present in European/Asian Circassian walnut. Here's a pic of a few walnut logs on a dock in Hamburg Germany in 1914. Our walnut got around.
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Also, here's a couple of some of my walnut planks drying. I make gun stocks. Three to five years air drying is about right for gunstocks. For furniture making, kiln drying is important. Gary
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Hi Craig, I've seen a friend's copy of all three volumes of Suppliers to the Confederacy books. They aren't cheap but a great source. PoorvilleThere is a chapter on where the wood came from in one of the Suppliers to the Confederacy books. One of the Birmingham gunmakers bought a sawmill in Turin, Italy. I think it was WC Scott & Son. Hundreds of thousands of walnut stocks for the English gun trade came from there. John Dent Goodman, when he was Chairman of BSAT referenced the Turin sawmill operation as the source of their gun stocks but hesitated to name the gunmaker that owned it and it took a fair amount of digging to find out who it was. Why that was considered a secret or confidential is lost on me? I found it by looking through the old records where the sawmill was sold in the late 1870s and which gunmaker sold it.
One kind of odd characteristic of Birmingham guns (you don't see it as much on the output from commercial London gunmakers) is a slight shrinkage near the toe of the stock by the butt plate. Presumably this was from kiln drying to hasten the seasoning process of the wood.
Yes, the wood had to be seasoned, officially.
3-4 years typically.Perhaps a dumb question, but how long must the walnut wood for gun stocks need to season to the point it can be used?
To Tiger's response in post #11, I'd add that walnut is extremely resistant to damage caused by the shock of repeated recoil. All of these features make it a highly desirable stock wood even today.I have a question to add to this thread: What qualities of walnut made it desirable then for firearms (and today, as well)?