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Joined: Feb 2008
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Originally Posted By: salopian

Interestingly enough I wonder why of all the trees that grow Walnut is a favourite for gunstocks , surely there must be other choices in this wide world?


Gunmakers and stockers have had hundreds of years to try using many different woods. The tried and true near universal choice is Juglans Regia, or English walnut, whenever it is available. No other wood has so many of the desirable attributes of proper strength, weight, ease of machining, carving, and checkering, and overall beauty.

In many cases, the choice of wood has been governed by what is readily available. Early American gun makers used a lot of Red maple, sugar maple or wild cherry. Black Walnut is a very good wood that can have spectacular grain and figure, but stock makers will still prefer the English (or French, Turkish, Circassian, Italian, or whatever other names the same species goes by) because it is generally easier to carve or machine, and takes checkering better. Most American gun makers used Black Walnut simply because it was and still is cheaper and more readily available here. Many other species have been used for gun stocks including mesquite, beech, birch, myrtle, yama, bubinga, ash, mahogany, and others.

I have one field grade Syracuse Lefever that has a very unusual butt stock and forend. It looks 100% Lefever in almost every respect except for the fact that it clearly is not stocked in English walnut. It looks to me like very close grained quartersawn white oak, which is commonly used for flooring and whiskey and wine barrels. It has no serial number under the trigger guard as original factory stocks do. I've thought about replacing it, but I have wondered if it might be a "Lunch Box Special" that was "appropriated" by a Lefever employee in pieces, and stocked at home with whatever wood happened to be available. Whoever did the work was no stranger to gunstock making, but the choice of wood is a mystery.


A true sign of mental illness is any gun owner who would vote for an Anti-Gunner like Joe Biden.

irs #530866 12/12/18 07:04 AM
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fruit woods were used by stock makers in the past a bit more - i have a piece of pear wood which is probably just big enough to get a stock out of - pear wood takes a fine carving and is very nice to work with hand tools - i have some bits and bobs sat about and may cobble together something from it just as an unusual project if time allows

irs #531274 12/16/18 07:56 AM
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Being from the South I tend to really appreciate some of the species that grow here more predominantly than other regions of the country, like longleaf pine. It is, of course, not suitable for gunstocks, but I have wondered whether pecan would be a suitable gunstock wood. It is very hard, and dense, and is used to make furniture often. We have a bedroom set made of pecan, and it has great color and character. Pecan is a nut tree, like walnut, and is used for spoon and bowl sets by woodworkers often, and it makes beautiful kitchen cabinets.

Anyone ever heard of it being used to stock a gun?

SRH


May God bless America and those who defend her.
irs #531298 12/16/18 12:07 PM
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Pecan is terrible firewood. As it burns it pops sparks all over the room...Geo

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To burn pecan, it should be split and stacked, then aged for at least a year. Other wise, it will act as you say. If aged, it doesn't do that nearly as badly. My saw mill buddies won't saw pecan for lumber, and to my protest that furniture and cabinets are made from it; they claim the local (Ala.)wood is no good, that the nice wood comes from other areas. I tried to have them saw some when they sawed cedar, walnut( not gunstock size) and black locust for me. Pecan is burned here quite a bit for BBQ and smoking meat, however.
Mike

irs #531321 12/16/18 05:17 PM
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...Gunstock woods....
There is nothing new under the sun.
There is a book by Virgil M. Davis
"Gunstock woods and other fine timbers", published
by SouthLandPress,Inc. 1987, in limited edition,
no ISBN
I bought it a one of the west-coast-trade-shows in
the 1990's.
It has ALL the questions and ALL the answers re gunstock-wood.
..
Please note that ALL the rosewoods (lat. Dalbergia)
are on Cites, plus Red-Sandal-wood ( lat.
Pterocarpus-Santalinus),Bubinga, Pernambuc,..
Not because of you and me but because of the
new wealthy Chinese middle class crazy for
these precious wood beauties.
Madagascar has the highest bio-/rosewoods-diversity
in the world,
44 indigenous trunk-building trees, not found anywhere else .
You have no chance to get one gram of these purplish/red beauties, its all POWERS RESERVED PRC.
...
Anyhow, you have the best gunstock-wood-choice before your house-door, go to Calico in Santa Rosa/California. There is nothing comparable
to their yellow/black-marbled Californian walnut or their Claro.
Cheers
Felix Neuberger

Last edited by felix; 12/17/18 08:32 AM.
Der Ami #531369 12/16/18 10:55 PM
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Pecan wood from that part of the country probably grows on sandy soil and eats up saw blades.
Chuck

irs #531377 12/16/18 11:28 PM
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Bodock?

irs #531898 12/22/18 02:08 PM
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Rosewood blank along with a pretty piece of Claro I just picked up.

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