Would chestnut make a good gun stock?

[kansas_volunteer]

I've been doing a little online research, and although I can't find any specific refereences to making gunstocks from chestnut. It seems like pretty high grade goods in many ways. I'd go ahead and try it. Given that it does split cleanly. I'd use a long tang and trigger bar and "splint" the grip, but otherwise it shouldn't be to difficult to deal with. Glass bed the tang, maybe.

I read somewhere years ago that some southern stocks were made of longleaf yellow pine, which is about as hard as walnut. You don't have to stick to traditional stock woods, as determined by modern weren't-there-and-didn't-do-it stock hackers.

Chestnut might have been the choice for a guy wanting a "barn gun" if that's what was available.It is certainly rot resistant enough to still stand in the corner of the barn long after the iron parts have rusted all to heck.

 

Thanks for the info.
I thought making a stock from such an old and rare piece of wood might be interesting.
I would be afraid to enlet the wood to stock myself.
I might try contacting TOTW or Pecatonica and see if they wood enlet and match up with a parts set.

 

82 airborne I am a tour guide/curator at the William Whitley House State Historic Site in Lincoln County KY just west of my home county of Rockcastle. You should come by and tour the house it was the first brick house west of the Aligany Mountains and Col. Whitley was a well know indian fighter. The "garret" or attic of the house is still baring all of the original beems of American Chestnut that were hand hewed in the 1780's

 

Hi Joseph,
That sounds great.
Ill have to come and see. The kids will love it.
My wife is homeschooling so that would make a great history lesson field trip.

 

The home is furnished with all original 18th and early 19th century items, we also have on display one of Col Whitley's longrifles and powderhorns. The rifle is stock in tiger maple and is in the 1790's early 1800's virginia school of rifles. The gun and likly the horn were built at the same time by Jacob Young, he was commisioned to build the gun by Mrs. Whitley for her husband.

 

Ill definitely be there.
Im not to far from there.
I bought a farm that was setteled in the late 1700s.
Im between the wilderness trail and the cumberland mountains.

 

Beautiful surroundings what county are you in? It looks like I have beeen there before and porbably have

 

Im in jackson county,on the edge of clay co.
Im surrounded by the Daniel Boone Forest.

 

Jackson County and US 421 is only 6-7 miles from my home.

 

Your very close.Im a few miles from Annville.
Im about 5 or 6 miles from 421.

 

drop a line at [email protected] and let me know when you are coming and I will let you know about an evnet we are having at the W.W. House on the 16th of this month

 

[CrackStock]

I can't find any specific references to making gunstocks from chestnut.

I think that there is very good reason for this.

Given that it does split cleanly

There is the reason.

The rifle is stock in tiger maple

There is the solution.

I think that if you are going to build a gun, that you should use something that stands a reasonable chance of holding together for a while. You will have precious little between the barrel and ramrod for a wood that is prone to split to stay together. If you get the wood just right for this tender area, the you had better be especially careful about the wrist. Then the fact of the very thin wood along the barrel...

I hope that I am wrong, but my crystal ball shows a chestnut half stock in your future. :rotf:

CS

 

[user 922]

I bought some reclaimed Chestnut a couple of years ago that came from a 200 year old barn in Berks Co., PA. I planed it and used it to make a couple of Shaker wall clocks.

I discovered why it's mainly used for barn siding and fence posts. It splinters very easily. Inletting the door hinges in the clock case sides and doors required a lot of filling. I would shudder to think about inletting a lock or patchbox in that wood. Any carving would be out of the question. I would never try it based on my experience with Chestnut.

By the way, with a simple linseed oil and varnish mix the color was wonderful - very unique "chestnut brown".

 

[Wehrmacht]

Just came to me....Sassafras is another wood that looks very similar to Chestnut. I've never seen a Sassafras stock, and really doubt that it would ever be used, but the two do look enough alike to confuse someone that wasn't familiar with different woods.

IMO Longleaf Pine would probably have been used only as a last straw. It isn't suited at all for stock material.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

While I wouldn't use any modern yellow pine sold in lumber yards to stock a Southern style rifle, I sorta think some reclaimed old growth wood with tight growth rings might make an interesting poor boy stock. Yellow pine rates with walnut in weight and strength, and is far more rot resistant. It shouldn't be anymore difficult to work than a piece of walnut, provided the maker worked with the wood, instead of trying to fight it.

It's mot something I'll probably ever get around to trying, but I think it would be neat to give in a whirl. In my mind, I see interesting things happening on a yellow pine stock.

 

[CrackStock]

You are comparing some web based stats and arriving at conclusions about the ability of the wood to take the form of a usable gun. Its use as a gunstock is poor compared to the hardwoods traditionally selected. It might make a strong enough 2X4 which is the criteria often mentioned by what is termed "strength" in most stat sheets, but how does that compare to the ability of walnut to avoid dents or keep components together with major areas of the wood removed to accommodate the workings of those components? Its strength is in its long and fibrous structure with lessened lateral strength. It is a completely different strength.

CS

 

[Stophel]

Yellow pine is dense and heavy, and has strength (can support a load), but is simply too soft for a stock, and definitely too splintery. I would not trust it to hold together under recoil, and when the wrist broke, it would send huge sharp shards of bloodthirsty wood right into your hand and into your face. :winking:

 

[Wehrmacht]

Very good friend of mine is the director of the state of Florida Archaeological Preservation and Restoration Lab, so I called him and asked if he had ever seen either American Chestnut or Longleaf Pine used as stock material. His answer was never. He has handled several thousand individual pieces over the years from 16th century Spanish weapons right down to about the 1898 cutoff. This would include untold Indian pieces as well as early Florida settlers. That's not to say that somewhere some time some fellow didn't use either of the two, but knowing the physical characteristics of both species I don't think it would have been a wood of choice.

Longleaf Pine-and I'm talking about old growth,not second growth-was probably the best construction material ever used in the good ole USA. The early waterfronts ie piers,docks,warehouses etc from New England to the Pacific coast was built with it. Ships,too! The whaleship Charles W.Morgan in Mystic Seaport Museum was planked with Longleaf cut in south-central Georgia around present day Tifton,Ga. About 35 years ago Mystic Seaport Museum contacted me requesting my help in locating virgin Longleaf trees that could be cut for replanking the Morgan, and they preferred trees from around Tifton since the original came from there. No way on that-sorry! There isn't any virgin Longleaf left except small patches widely scattered across the Deep Southern Coastal Plain. Yankees didn't leave us any :shocked2: .War restitution, you see, for loosing the War or Wah or Wayah-however you want to say it! I was able to locate enough virgin Longleaf on Eglin AFB near Pensacola,Florida. Enough of this was sold for historical reasons to replank the ship. I wouldn't charge Mystic for my efforts, so the Museum gave me a 24'X30" print of a painting of the Morgan under sail chasing whales....and the frame is made out of pieces of the original bottom planking from the Morgan .

Sorry, didn't mean to steal the original Thread :winking: .

 

[sidelock]

Thanks for the great story Forester. I know you must treasure the pic. and the frame even more.