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Advantages of Which Types of Wood ?

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Mostly stylistic. European firearms would likely have walnut stocks. Colonial built stocks could be of American Black Walnut or Maple. Both are dense hard woods that carve fairly easily.
 
Not trying to criticize Grenadier 1758 and we may be saying the same thing, but the difference in stock woods between Europe and Colonial America was mostly due to geography and what woods were considered best for gun stocks available in the different regions of the world.

OK in deference to my departed Grandfather who taught me to love American Black Walnut so dearly, it is rarely as good of a wood for gun stocks as European Walnut was and still is, when you can get it here. Even though Black Walnut was exported to England in the 18th century for furniture, they did not use it for gun stocks and stayed with European Walnut.

Further, not just any Black Walnut is good for gun stocks, as I found out from the folks at Bishop and Rheinhardt Fajen stock makers over the years. Generally a Walnut Tree that has to fight to grow, makes a better gun stock wood than Walnut grown in many forests or groves. That's why both Bishop and Rheinhardt Fajen were located in the same small town in MO, when both were still in operation.

What 18th century American Colonial Gunsmiths found was that Sugar or "Hard" Maple was very close to European Walnut for gun stocks. Further, it had/has a most pleasing tendency for curl or burl or tiger stripe figure in the wood. So that's why it was used more for civilian gun stocks in the 18th century over Black Walnut. As others noted, cherry and even apple wood stocks were also used; just not as much as Hard Maple.

Now, Black Walnut was the preferred stock wood for American Military Gun stocks from when Springfield Armory opened it doors in the early 1790's through M14 gun stocks made in the 1960's. They always preferred straight grain wood (that hopefully curved through the wrist of the stock for strength) because such wood will take more heavy use and abuse than figured curly maple, that will more easily crack through the wrist area of the stock. It was also cheaper and easier to get than Hard/Sugar straight grained Maple.

Gus
 
On many origInal Hawkens straight grain plain Maple’s wood was used. I HAVE HEARD BUT AM NOT SURE that straight grain Maple’s is a little tougher than curly flame tiger stripe.

Maybe the old time gunsmiths new this and for rifles headed west wanted the toughest maple?
 
Beech seems to have been favored for European military stocks for most of the 20th century. most of these wood choices may have been related to availability.
 
Hi,
This question gets asked a lot. If you use the search function you likely will find hundreds of posts. The densest and hardest wood most makers use is sugar maple and black maple. The best wood in the world for stocks is English walnut and its various cousins (Turkish, European, Circassian, etc). It has the best balance of strength and workability. But the choice of wood really depends on your objectives. If you just want a strong stock for a gun, sugar maple and English walnut would be a good choices. However, if you want to build an American longrifle with appropriate carving, hard sugar or black maple would be the best choice. Curl or figure in that wood is nice but it also makes shaping and carving a little more difficult. If you want to make a plain undecorated rifle but with great curl or figure, find a heavy blank of red maple. If you want to make an 18th or early 19th century New England fowler or rifle, use a dense, heavy piece of cherry or sugar maple. If you want to make a southern mountain rifle from the early 19th century, you might consider American black walnut but find a blank that is heavy and dense. A dense blank of black walnut can be fine but many less dense blanks are pretty poor.

dave
 
I've been stocking modern guns fairly regularly with American Black Walnut for over 40 years and agree with Dave. It can be really fine or really poor. I've only used maple on one modern and one muzzle loader. I prefer to work good dense 1/4 sawed walnut with some burl in the butt and the grain running up hill a bit through the grip and forend. I've done quite a bit of checkering and good dense walnut works really well for my preferred 22 lpi.
 
Are there advantages / disadvantages of using walnut vs maple for the muzzle loader stocks?
Thanks!
Jim
First of all, what is a persons choice for appearance or aesthetic value? That IMO can be adv/disadvantage. My love is the Kentucky long rifle and thus I prefer Curly Maple. Walnut dresses down and trims smoother than Curly Maple. Curly Maple will pull out divets using a plane or spoke shave because the grain is not straight. Straight grain Maple is much easier to work than Curly, but IMO not nearly as pretty.
Flintlocklar 🇺🇸
 
You never mentioned whether you were planning on your first build or is this just a general question. I would recommend a straight grained wood for a persons first build. There are many styles of ML rifles that are suited to a straight grained wood. This will be more suited to learning the change of grain directions in the wood as you are moving from curve to another and how to change your tool directions to suit. The choice of wood species would be up to you but as mentioned above be sure to select a dense piece of wood.
 
Walnut will require the grain to be filled but is easier to work. Maple does not require filling the grain but is tougher to work.
 
Depends on the circumstance you’re using.

Military muskets I would use a nice Even grained walnut, easy to fix and redress if needed. Walnut was preferred by the militaries of Britain, France, Spain and America. Austria and Eastern Countries used Birch, Beech and some types of myrtle.

For Checkering, black walnut and English walnut seem to work best with checkering.

For a high caliber Rifle like a Christian Springs Rifle or Jeager, Cherry and Maple seem to be favorites as they tend to be a little more durable on recoil.

Traditionally most 18th century gun makers used walnut as it the wood most lumberers would have available dried and ready to cut, this also includes types of Birch, Ash and Beech Which are heavier woods Used on early 17th century muskets, matchlocks and wheellocks.

American gunmakers tended to favor maple for its decorative grain and availability.

Today, Indian gunmakers like use Teak and Rosewoods because of its availability, not a great selection of wood, as its too hard and too tightly grained causing it to crack and break.
 
Historically, guns from a particular region used certain woods based on availability and economics. So for HA find out what that would’ve likely been for your gun. Northern colonial made guns were mostly Maple, Carolina, TN, KY, GA, guns were often Walnut. English were English Walnut. Of course there were many exceptions.
 
Walnut is the most common I think that is used for muzzleloaders Followed by Maple.

Walnut is hard but not so hard that its brittle, and its toughness holds up too. The grain of walnut is over course very attractive and not too tight.

Maple is also hard and tough, but certain species of Maple can be crappy, like Swamp maple or Japanese Maple. Miroku used a pretty poor maple that they stained in walnut on their Charleville and Brown Besss. High Quality maple is of course the go to choice for long rifles because of its delightful grain and quality.

Cherry less common and more expense is a great choice for any muzzleloader. not the hardest wood. Close grained and very nice. The right species of cherry needs to be used, Brazilian Cherry his almost as hard as wrought Iron.

Mahogany: Very hard wood, delicate appearance, not commonly used.

Teak: About as hard as walnut but much more brittle, used by Indian gunmakers because of its availability.

Rosewood: expensive hardwood, used on some Indian made guns, nice grain but doesnt stain very well or take oil, needs to be dyed, hot oiled for absorption.

Cheaper Woods for gunstocks: Birch, Beech, Holme Oak and Pine. Pine is on most replica not functional guns.
 
You hit most of them FlinterNick. Ash is another that gets used with some degree of frequency, and Persimmon has been known to be used on occasion in a few originals. I can't imagine working with that stuff. They used to use it in golf club woods!
 
cherry never warps, at least not where i live. their are old ranch sales here and in the blacksmith shop are levels made from cherry that are way over 100 years old and they are straight with no warp in them at all. good as the day they were new. beech shrinks a lot but once stable is very strong. i made a custom stock for the fun of it once out of a very pretty piece of oak. found out why oak isnt used in gun stocks. every time i shot that gun a piece of wood would fly off of it. finally threw the stock away and made a high end stock out of western quilted maple. if you never seen western quilted maple your jaw would drop and you would be speechless when you do. some think it is just too nice. a little softer than eastern maple,a very very tough wood though. wont crack. if you build for customers and they want the best and figure get oregon western quilted maple. a few yeas back a very rich west coast man paid 14,000 dollars for the crotch of a western quilted maple tree. was going to have a flinter long rifle made out of it. he owned a dog food co. i paid 250 dollars for a chuck of wood i carved a half stock out of. it was very adaquate.
 
the man who sold me the 200 dollar plus one told me he just sold one to a very rich man for 14,000 dollars. i would not want the job of building the rifle, too mach at stake. ive covered up mistakes with a nice inlay. that their could be no mistakes.
 

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