Smoothbores in the Colonies

[Ike Godsey]

Howdy,

I am thinking of the use of ”žolder smoothbores“ in the colonies. Meaning weapons, which have been made maybe in 1720 or so, made by gunsmiths in the colonies, used as a hunting/militia weapon and then, given to the next generation(s) in the family.

I have seen some very beautiful weapons during my internet search, some them used “Curly Maple” wood for the stock. So I looked for Curly Maple and found this:

Tiger maple is also often referred to as curly maple or flame maple.
Tiger maple is a temperate hardwood tree that grows mostly in the eastern United States and Canada and comes from the red maple tree. An interesting fact is that, not all maple trees produce tiger maple wood. The intensity, consistency and size of the pattern is what determines the grade or quality of Tiger Maple.
Since the 18th century when the use of tiger maple peaked in colonial America it is still used widely to this day.

So I have some questions that the Internet left unanswered, but I know, here are many experts”¦

Is curly maple widely used in the colonies for fowler stocks, prior to the 1730s?

If yes, was this type of wood something special (by means of “expensive”, or something that shows “I am rich”), or was it the other way ”“ was it cheap wood?

If an “average” citizen in the colonies, member of its milita, would he have such a gun with that type of stockwood?

Or would cherry for a stock be a better choise?

Thank you in advance,
Ike :hatsoff:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Ike I think that prior to the time period between the F&I and the AWI, the wood that was used was what was available. IF the builder made a stock that had lots of curl, then the buyer got lucky.

Even today, they don't know from the outside of the tree what will have "curl" or won't. They won't know today, and couldn't know back then, until they cut the tree into billets, and allowed it to dry.

The lumber industry being what it was in the first half of the 18th century, I would doubt they could afford to keep large pieces of figured wood out of the mix for furniture, and reserve them for guns.

There is also the theory that a gun that ended up with a really nice piece of wood may have been preserved until our era due to its beauty...but may have not been very common in its day, ...so skews our understanding today. "Theory"... in that we're never going to know whether the majority of guns produced in the colonies in the first half of the 18th century had any curl to their wood.

LD

 

[Ike Godsey]

LD,

with "what was available" you're talking about wood used for gun stocks, in a certain area?

Is "curly maple" a local thing?
I mean was the area where it grows, an area where people in the first half of the 18th century had access to?

Ike

 

[jamesthomas]

Curly maple is a Maple tree that just got lucky in the "Curly" department, same goes for "Red" Maple. It makes you wonder how much super fine maple was just thrown in the wood pile for this winters heat. I would think that cherry was used a lot for furniture (Bed frames, Chairs, Stair cases, Etc. but I may be wrong.

 

[Artificer]

Ike,

Not sure if I can cover all your questions in one post, but here goes.

"Curly" Maple is not a type of tree or even a distinct species of Maple, but rather the figure of the grain in the wood of individual trees. Different types of Maple MAY have curly grain in individual trees or not, but it varies from tree to tree.

Curly figure shows up in the crotch areas of trees; so that can be down by the roots and sometimes where a large branch grows from the tree. So even a tree that has curly figure in it will not have ALL curly figure throughout the wood. Not all trees have the curly figure and by some accounts, less than 40 percent down to 20 percent of trees have curly figure that people want for gun stocks or fine furniture. So curly maple is a more expensive wood because people like the look of it.

Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum) is also known as "Hard" Maple and generally is the preferred wood for gun stocks in that era. This because Sugar Maple holds up better to carving and is a bit harder and denser than Red Maple (Acer Rubrum). HOWEVER, this tree was ALSO the primary source of SUGAR in the American Colonies in the 18th century, so as long as the tree could be used for sugar, they would not cut them down. (White or Cane Sugar from the Caribbean was available, but it was much, MUCH more expensive and something only the wealthier people used, in part to show they had the money to buy it.)

Here is the range where Sugar Maple was/is found in the Colonies: https://www.lakeforest.edu/live/im...le_acer_saccharum_-_usgs_distribution_map.jpg

Red Maple (Acer Rubrum) is generally a little less dense and softer than Sugar Maple, though some hard planks come from some trees. It is hard enough for gun stocks, though it does not hold up to carving as well. The preferred wood of Hudson's Bay Fowlers was Red Maple as they tried to save the Sugar Maples for Sugar and there was not as much carving on Fowler Stocks.

Here is the range of Red Maple: http://www.massmaple.org/images/3_8.jpg

Oh, another thing. "English" Walnut that was preferred in Great Britain for gun stocks and especially for smoothbores mostly came from the Balkans in that time period. American Black Walnut is not as dense as English Walnut and Black walnut does not stand up to carving as well. American Sugar Maple was actually more like English Walnut in that regard than American Black Walnut.

Cherry and Apple made/make great gun stock woods. However, getting a plank from them large enough for 18th century gunstocks was difficult as the trees don't grow nearly as large as Maple or Walnut. They also did not want to cut down fruit bearing trees as long as they bore fruit in the period.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

That reminds me of how back in the mid to late 70's, a friend of a friend owned a farm in Indiana. He had been involved with muzzle loading for a couple of years and was thinking about building guns.

When we drove to his farm for me to meet him, my buddy and I noticed his brand new fence that had a LOT of curly maple in it. He had used wood from one of the small wood lots on his farm. When we told the farmer how much his fence was worth, he almost fell over in shock. After that, he was much more careful when he cut trees......

Gus

 

[54ball]

Is curly maple widely used in the colonies for fowler stocks, prior to the 1730s?

I think the real question is, How many colonial gunsmiths or more accurately, stockers and gun makers were active prior to the 1730s?

We know there were some but I suspect the majority of arms used in the Colonies prior to the 1730s were European made.

North American wood on 18th Century European arms...

A good question would be how much American wood was imported buy sea and used in European, namely French and English factories.

The Colonies provided raw materials to the growing arms industry in Europe, just How much stock wood I do not know. I feel safe in saying just because an arm has American wood, does not necessarily mean it was "American made.

Peter Alexander mentions Revolutionary War Period English Trade Rifles being mistaken for Colonial made longrifles by collectors. These rifles were English made copies of American Pieces to trade to the Indians. American Gunsmiths in turn copied some of the improvements on the English Rifles and applied it to their own.

Curl...

Maple is not the only wood that will curl. Walnut,Ash, Cherry and probably many more woods will have figured curl in the grain. Maple tends to show it more but other stock woods are capable of "curl". The curl in Cherry seems to be mottled while Walnut can be so curly, it can easily be mistaken for Maple.

I recall that "curly" grained trees tended to be from the windward slope. The rocking action of these trees in the wind "could" produce the figure. Trees protected from wind tend to have less figure. If that is true, a wood cutter would have known where to harvest trees suitable for gunstocks.

 

[Zonie]

While we are discussing "curly" woods, here is a bit about the reason they show stripes.

A lot of folks see the vertical stripe pattern on wood and get the idea that the grain of the wood is running in the same direction.
I've had more than a few people look at the stripes on my longrifles and say, "That grain's going thru the wrist wrong. She'll break for sure with that vertical grain there."
They are wrong.

The stripe pattern is actually perpendicular to the grain of the wood.

OK. Why are the stripes perpendicular to the grain and what causes them?

It turns out, the woods grain is wavy, not curly.
The waves all move pretty much together as they extend up the trunk or out the branch so a board cut from the tree has a grain pattern that looks like this sketch I made.



OK, so they are wavy. How do they make those dark stripes?

As anyone who has stained wood knows, the end grain absorbs a LOT more stain than the grain running along the surface of a board. That always makes the end grain darker.

When a saw, plane or anything else makes a flat surface parallel with the grain of a curly board it ends up cutting off the tops or peaks of the waves. That essentially ends up revealing the end grain of the wood in stripes as the wave comes out of the surface and dives back into it.

When the wood is stained, this exposed "end grain" sucks up more stain and becomes darker than the wood right next to it.

Even without stain, the stripes produced by the wavy grain is very noticeable as light/dark lines.

After getting coated with finishing oils or varnish the stripes on unstained wood will appear as slightly darker, iridescent, features.
Staining the curly wood brings out the contrast but the iridescence of the curl will still show plainly. That is why no man can produce a curly pattern that looks real.

Getting back to the topics subject, the book AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS by George D. Moller discusses the arms made during the colonial period and says during the 1700's many militias men armed themselves with "Fowler-Muskets".
These guns often had the typical smooth bore barrels with short lengths of octagon shapes at the breech and round barrel shapes forward of that.
They often had a sight/bayonet lug 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches aft of the muzzle.
Short lengths of the muzzle extended several inches beyond the forestock.

The author writes,

"Walnut appears to have been the favored wood for the stocks, with cherry running a close second. Maple and other a
American fruit woods were also used."

Oddly, of the several guns the book describes most of them were stocked with cherry, maple or curly maple.

 

[54ball]

The wavy grain may give prudence to the the tale I heard about "Curly" trees being exposed to wind.

 

[Zonie]

From all I've read about the wind causing the waves, it doesn't have much creditably.

Trees with curly wood often grow in areas where the air is quite calm year 'round.

It seems to be a genetic thing and as was mentioned earlier, there is no external indication that the trees have this wavy grain. The only way to find out is to remove a limb and split it.

 

[Tinker2]

I had hear that it was the Weight of the tree that caused the curly wood.

The bigger the tree and the closer to the ground/stump the better.

Just what I hear :idunno:


William Alexander

 

[Artificer]

Ever wonder why the leading producers of American gunstocks for many years, I.E. Rheinhardt Fajen and Bishop, were BOTH from the same little town in Warsaw, MO? It was thought that the harsher environment there made the trees more curly. In fact it just so happened there were more trees there with the genetic propensity for curly wood.

Gus

 

[Tinker2]

Harsher environment is what make the wood denser



Just what I hear :idunno:

William Alexander

 

[Artificer]

Curl...

Maple is not the only wood that will curl. Walnut,Ash, Cherry and probably many more woods will have figured curl in the grain.

I think it was the 2005 18th Century Market Faire at Fort Frederick, Maryland, that I saw a reproduction of a rather large writing desk that was separate from legs. It was in use by one of the Sutlers there that year. The curly grain was fabulous, so I had to take a very close look at it. However, I stared at it for some time trying to figure out what wood it had been made from.

When the Sutler asked if he could help, I told him I thought his writing desk was gorgeous, but was trying to figure out what wood it came from. He grinned and said a lot of folks had said the same thing. I responded that I did not know for sure, but wondered if it was possibly Curly Ash? He grinned from ear to ear and said that was correct. Up until that time, I could not imagine Ash having that much curl, but there it was right in front of me.

Gus

 

[salkehatchie]

What a fantastic topic! A great education.

My wife and I go to auctions here in MO. This general area was settled by KY, TN and SC folks around 1820 time frame. The amount of furniture from the 1820ish time frame and the wood it was made from is incredible. With the economy like it is this stuff is going to auctions on a regular basis. So cheap in fact we have purchased some pieces to use for our re-enactments! :nono:

Apple [one day I will have a gunstock of this!] walnut, cherry, elm, maple of course, butternut.

Anyway...a great topic. And yes there are guns and accoutrements going all the way back to the Rev War Point Pleasant to the War Between the States and the TX war of independence around here. Will never, ever see pictures on the net of those items as they are held in multi-generational private family collections.

Thank you guys for a great posting. :hatsoff:

 

[Pete G]

Small pieces of the curl can pop out of the stock during planeing, shaping, carving, etc. Especially where the grain changes direction. I've often wondered if a curly grained stock is weaker than a straight grained stock. Seems that most of the old rifles you see with a repaired break are figured wood.

 

[Artificer]

I've often wondered if a curly grained stock is weaker than a straight grained stock. Seems that most of the old rifles you see with a repaired break are figured wood.

This is certainly what the British, French and U.S. Military always believed on wood stocks - right up to WWII when the emergency of production caused them to use some highly figured wood, just to get enough M1 Garands made. Other than that, some figure near the butt plate was acceptable, but that was about all they would accept.

Of course what they also wanted was the grain to sort of curve and flow through/with the grip as well. You don't want end grain in the wrist area when the stock is going to get battered and beaten like military guns have to take.

Gus

 

[Supercracker]

A while back I was watching a video (H&H Doc I think) and in the segment where they were talking about stock woods they mentioned that curl and figure was genetic and (IIRC) passed from the female trees. The trees passing their genetics to offspring in their immediate area is what led people to believe it was related to minerals and such in a particular locations soil, prior to there being any understanding of genetics.

 

[Alden]

Genetics? Female trees!?

 

[azmntman]

Know nada re genetics, (my parents were married though so's I aint illiterate) :rotf: .

Re Sex of trees, they do have "male n female" trees. Have two aspens in yard and one has much different buds in the spring but are same tree and same leaves in the summer. Wonder if male trees are stronger wood n female have prettier grain??