Beechwood gunstocks

[Artificer]

Artificer said:
Beech also sucks up water vapor and other moisture like a sponge, so it swells and shrinks more than walnut.

Gus

That means it will soak up linseed oil, so use several layers.

Nope. Linseed oil or Boiled Linseed oil by themselves is virtually useless to keep water vapor out of stocks.

I would not use Beech for a traditional stock, but if I did, I darn sure would use one of the period varnish oil finishes or a modern equivalent.

Gus

 

[edw.marshall]

Artificer said:
Beech also sucks up water vapor and other moisture like a sponge, so it swells and shrinks more than walnut.

Gus

I found that Birchwood Casey Genuine Oil seals Beechwood stocks well & leaves a smooth, satin finish



Nope. Linseed oil or Boiled Linseed oil by themselves is virtually useless to keep water vapor out of stocks.

I would not use Beech for a traditional stock, but if I did, I darn sure would use one of the period varnish oil finishes or a modern equivalent.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

I can see how Genuine Oil would work well from the msds, though I've never used it.
.

Gus

 

[Stophel]

I think people GREATLY overestimate the importance of a totally-sealed finish.

 

[RAEDWALD]

European beech is a different wood to American beech. Hard and stable and the only approved alternative to walnut for British muskets and rifles. In WW2 Lee Enfield rifles were walnut stocked but changed to beech and remained beech until production ended @1957. Treated by immersion in hot linseed oil. Not a pretty wood but stable and hard and a sound choice for a gun stock. Ironically, when they went from the Lee Enfield to the L1A1 self loading rifle, the wood for the butt and fore end reverted to walnut. When these were updated to modern plastic I had the unhappy task of burning the old removed wooden parts, many of which had some excellent figure.

Rather reminded me of the old Tower days when muskets returned to stores were stripped of their good iron parts to be reused in new muskets, worn iron sold for scrap, the brass to be remelted for new muskets and the worn stocks burned to heat the Tower armoury.

I only mention unmentionable guns in relation to the wood which is the subject of the thread.

 

[ord sgt]

Older CVA mountain rifle stock from kit.
Is this maple?

Take a small piece of cloth and wet the cloth with rubbing alcohol. Wipe the wood. You will be able to see the figure of the grain when the stock is damp. If it is maple, you should see some stripes running across the stock. But most likely, it's beech.

 

[hanshi]

I've owned at least two or three guns stocked with "another wood" likely some kind of beech? That was years ago and those guns were quite good ones and I had no complaints. A quick check did verify all my current ones are either walnut or maple.

 

[Elkhorse]

Oh, no it ain't. It's harder than American walnut. Considerably harder than cherry. Definitely harder than birch. It can be every bit as hard as the best sugar maple.

It is, however, rather splintery and unpleasant to work with.

Beech has very prominent rays, and can be rather gaudy in appearance.

After cutting down lots of beech while logging I'd say it's pretty tough stuff.

 

[Elkhorse]

Wood hardness tables.

https://www.precisebits.com/reference/relative_hardness_table.htm

 

[FlinterNick]

For Finishing a Beech Stock, I would wipe it down with hot water at 180 grit and then stain, this keeps the blotting down. Beechwood grain tends to be less porous and closed, I’ve sealed with with a sanding slurry up to 320 grit using Danish Oil. Then I varnished over it with a thinned Mohawk Varnish. I wouldn’t sand above 320 with Beech.

I’ve only finished American Beech, not European Beech.

 

[Cattywompuss]

Oh, no it ain't. It's harder than American walnut. Considerably harder than cherry. Definitely harder than birch. It can be every bit as hard as the best sugar maple.

It is, however, rather splintery and unpleasant to work with.

Beech has very prominent rays, and can be rather gaudy in appearance.

This is why there are still considerable beech hangers in the east. It dulled saws and axes and they were left standing. Beech is not as hard as some woods, but it is extremely hard and hard to work. We once had a load of beech 1x6x16 fenceboards that were left at the horse farm I worked on. They had seasoned for several years. We could not drive common 3 inch nails into them. We sort of made it work by dipping the nails in bar oil before attempting to drive them. They had to be the reason those fences on that farm held up for a surprising amount of time. Well... that and the creosote that the builders used on the original fences as paint.

 

[Rob M.]

Beech was used a lot for English trade guns in the 18th century along with walnut ...

 

[SOLANCO]

We have two big beech trees shading the house. Squirrels grabbing the nuts in fall and red tails grabbing the squirrels. Good trees, love them.
Have read that they were used extensively for tool handles. Chisels and such.

 

[SOLANCO]

This is why there are still considerable beech hangers in the east. It dulled saws and axes and they were left standing. Beech is not as hard as some woods, but it is extremely hard and hard to work. We once had a load of beech 1x6x16 fenceboards that were left at the horse farm I worked on. They had seasoned for several years. We could not drive common 3 inch nails into them. We sort of made it work by dipping the nails in bar oil before attempting to drive them. They had to be the reason those fences on that farm held up for a surprising amount of time. Well... that and the creosote that the builders used on the original fences as paint.

Have a short section of fence with locust boards. Never rot in my lifetime. Did have to predrill holes when we replaced a couple of broken boards.

 

[Colonial Boy]

European beech is a different wood to American beech. Hard and stable and the only approved alternative to walnut for British muskets and rifles. In WW2 Lee Enfield rifles were walnut stocked but changed to beech and remained beech until production ended @1957. Treated by immersion in hot linseed oil. Not a pretty wood but stable and hard and a sound choice for a gun stock. Ironically, when they went from the Lee Enfield to the L1A1 self loading rifle, the wood for the butt and fore end reverted to walnut. When these were updated to modern plastic I had the unhappy task of burning the old removed wooden parts, many of which had some excellent figure.

Rather reminded me of the old Tower days when muskets returned to stores were stripped of their good iron parts to be reused in new muskets, worn iron sold for scrap, the brass to be remelted for new muskets and the worn stocks burned to heat the Tower armoury.

I only mention unmentionable guns in relation to the wood which is the subject of the thread.

As an armourer I had a fair amount of experience with beech stocks on No1 Lee Enfields and found them comparable to walnut for serviceability and just as stable; in fact some competition shooters preferred them

 

[Col. Batguano]

I would not choose to do a build with it. If I'm going to spend 200+ hours of my time in the pursuit of a new and pretty gun, I want to use the materials that give me the best chance of success.

Or, when others look at it I want to "wow" them in to saying;
Son of a Gun!
not
Son of a Beech!

 

[user 31232]

My only experience with beech was cutting it as firewood as a kid on our farm. It had a tendency in our area to become unsound when it got big- rot in the middle.
There are many factors going into what is chosen for furniture and gunstocks. One that we often don’t consider is availability of large diameter clear trunks of sound wood for that type of wood. In New England I’m seeing a great many fine huge cherry trees. So I understand why so many New England fowlers and rifles were stocked in cherry.

Years ago I was cutting a hollow beech tree that had finally given up the ghost. As I started cutting I heard a loud humming sound! I jumped back so fast thinking a swarm of bees were insideit wasn't until a bit later when no bees came out I figured the hollow tree had been making the humming sound. Scared the bee devil out of me

 

[Frontier's]

Does anyone know if Traditions & CVA gunstocks are European or American Beech? Since their guns & kits come from Spain should I assume it’s European Beech?

European.

A lot of manure about beech stocks in this topic. Especially about them not storing well

If that was the case, all the 40 year old cvas wouldn't be in shooting shape.

The European stocks that come on traditions these days has been excellent in my experience.

Just need to know how to finish a stock and bring out it's natural beauty.

 

[FlinterNick]

European.

A lot of manure about beech stocks in this topic. Especially about them not storing well

If that was the case, all the 40 year old cvas wouldn't be in shooting shape.

The European stocks that come on traditions these days has been excellent in my experience.

Just need to know how to finish a stock and bring out it's natural beauty.

The issue with Beech being finished well has mostly to do with how its kiln dried.

If too dry, beech becomes very brittle, it needs some moisture content to keep it from splitting and cracking.

I use beech often for knife handles, only because the supplier i use doesn’t kiln dry the cuts, they’re pretty good quality and hold up to a lot of abuse, and can be file shaped rather well.

For gunstocks i haven’t worked with too much beech, only once on a matchlock and it was a fairly easy project. Biggest issue i ran into was keeping the color balanced. I over came the issue by hitting the stock with a wood steamer, it opened up the pools rather well.

 

[FlinterNick]

New Zealand and Australian Beech is a very good quality of beech.

I would actually compare it an exotic type of walnut, the grain pattern is very wavy and the wood is hard heavy and dense because of its high silica content.

Short story, I accidentally came across this wood in a chess board kit i ordered from Ebay years ago, which turned out to be New Zealand beech.

It’s a wonderful wood, and would make an a nice gunstock.