British, Dutch, American and French Musket Stocks

[FlinterNick]

When it comes to military musket stocks on British, American, Dutch and French musket stocks it is often assumed that most stocks are walnut and ordinance patterns required the use of walnut.

Looking for resources that might show that when English or European walnut was in low supply what was the alternative ?

In the USA American Walnut was always in high supply, not really a problem. However it does seem that maple was used by a lot of contractors on 1808 contract muskets and rifles.

 

[tenngun]

Walnut was the go to wood, and well through the eighteenth century European forest were still pretty thick.
Maple was rare on European guns and beech was used on some European guns during the napoleonic wars.
I don’t know if much American walnut was exported to Europe but American forest used to be full of it. And amazing to modern eyes fine walnut furniture was often painted. It was so common. I’ve a price list somewhere that list Steuart times prices for cheery gunstocks as a restock of an existing gun.
Many early american contract rifles were built by private gunsmiths who server the pupils and so they used ‘public wood’ mostly maple. But these were rifles and not National made muskets.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
All British muskets after the reign of Queen Anne were stocked in English walnut (Juglans regia). The only possible exception according to Bailey were some sea service muskets supplied fully made by contractors during the AWI. These may have been stocked in beech. During the matchlock era and very early flintlock era, many British muskets were stocked in beech but that was discontinued by the arrival of the first pattern of Brown Bess. I suspect that was mostly true for German, French, Dutch, and Belgian muskets as well. The main reason was Juglans regia is dense, cuts cleanly, is very strong, and does not need to be stained. Most beech muskets were painted dark and if maple was ever used, it likely was painted too. If Juglans regis was ever in short supply, I believe beech was the go to wood. In America, there are plenty of examples of muskets stocked here that used maple and black walnut. I am not sure about cherry but I don't see any reason why it was not used. After the AWI and although light woods such as maple, birch, beech, and cherry were available, our military like all the others generally wanted dark colored stocks for a more uniform appearance and those species had to be stained to darken them.

dave

 

[Loyalist Dave]

As a matter of fact, American Black Walnut was considered a sign of excellent soil, and the tree was so useful that you may find walnut trees lining the main "roadway" to a farmhouse, that was built in the 18th century, or lining the lane that runs parallel to a land boundary.

Well, often the "original" house was built in the 18th century, but that might either have been added onto, OR was knocked down and the existing structure built in the 19th century, or if a fire destroyed the structure the existing house might be as young as the 20th century...,

..., but the Walnut trees are still there.

I've seen several examples of this at a town known as Waterford VA, first settled (iirc) in 1728.

LD

 

[RAEDWALD]

The British Board of Ordnance official
fall back from walnut was beech.

 

[Artificer]

The British Board of Ordnance official
fall back from walnut was beech.

Especially during the Napoleonic Wars, though Beech stocked arms were the FIRST to be sold/surplused afterwards. I think British Ordnance was embarrassed they had to use Beech stocks.

Gus