lancaster in walnut

[doulos]

I just saw a lancaster rifle in the white in walnut on the American Longrifle forum. It was an awsome looking rifle. But my question is this was walnut used as much as maple back then?

 

[rich pierce]

Walnut was less commonly used but there are excellent examples. There's a nice Valentine Fondersmith in walnut and I've also seen a William Antes in walnut.

 

[Many Klatch]

Walnut was highly prized by the British Govt. Many of the Brown Bess's were in fact made with American Black Walnut for the stocks. Apparently there was a Walnut blight and English Walnut was hard to come by for some years.

Many Klatch

 

[jmforge]

Did the British gummint restrict "civilian" cutting of walnut like they supposedly did with the tall white pines that they used for making one piece ship's masts?

 

[B Shipman]

American walnut is light in weight relative to strength than other hardwoods. Not stronger than sugar maple, sugar maple is vastly tougher, but strong relative to weight. It's common and therefore an ideal wood for military arms. Garands in WW II are commonly stocked in Am. walnut.

 

[B Shipman]

Virtually all American military arms from the point of true Federal contracts to modern times have been stocked, ideally, in Am walnut.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I have a half-stock blank in American walnut that is the hardest chunk I've ever seen. I can barely leave a mark in it with my thumb nail. Even the stock my Trapdoor Springfield made in 1879 isn't this tough. The friend that gave it to me said it's been seasoning for thirty years and I've no call to doubt him. But my guns with walnut stocks don't come close to being this hard, though they've held up well for many years.

 

[Many Klatch]

I imagine that it was a lot harder to hide cutting down a 200 foot pine tree than it was to cut down a Black Walnut. Besides one Black Walnut will furnish many gun stocks while one ship might use dozens of pine trees for masts.

Many Klatch