Walnut Lancaster

[Larry Pletcher]

Well, I took the plunge.  The walnut Lancaster that Jim Chambers listed for sale here was on his rack at Friendship this spring.   To make a long story short, it came home with me.  The parts inletting is as near perfect as I have seen, but now needs some decoration.   Ive been looking at Lancaster guns in RCA and Kindig and am in the beginning stages of developing a plan.  I'm sure I'll have many questions for ALR and for Jim. 

Let me start by posing this question.  How is working with walnut different than working with maple?  It's been years since I did any relief carving and that was on maple.  One thing I noticed is that it is more difficult to draw a pencil line on walnut.  Does walnut bring new carving problems?  I have a couple of maple quaker stocks and will try out some ideas on them.  Anyway I'm at the beginning of a new challenge.  Compared to timing locks I'm flying blind, but I'm here to learn.

Regards,
Pletch 
 

[Dave B]

I am glad you have taken the plunge. Walnut is more opened grained and  must be treated with more caution when trying to carve due to it being more brittle than maple so it is easier to break off elements if your not careful.  There is the possibility that the piece you have may or may not be harder than the average piece of black walnut but the same rule applies to carving in Maple, the harder the better.  Keep you chisels razor sharp, watch the grain and you wont have any troubles. It would be wise to get some scrap walnut to practice carving on be for jumping in on the stock.

[chapmans]

Larry,
  I'm sure I have some scrap walnut pieces laying around, I'll dig some up and bring them along when we continue with the testing.
   Steve

[rich pierce]

Might not be able to rely on the hardness of the wood to preserve sharp edges, like lockplate moldings, so leave some tiny extra to clean and sharpen those edges up after you're really done and ready to finish.  Handle the stock more carefully, pad it well in the vise, etc.  For any stock not hard enough to produce clean relief carving, incised carving is the way to go.

[J. Talbert]

Larry,
I looked that gun over pretty well, and it's definitely put together very well.  I can't remember for sure which of the 3 that they had in the white, but I think that one and maybe one of the others were assembled by one of the best in the business.  Did you happen to ask?

As far as carving the walnut, I would try to keep my design elements a little larger and stay away from fine details.  Perhaps you could start with the moldings and see how the wood performs and decide on final details based on your assessment of its carvability.

Jeff

[Larry Pletcher]

Thanks for you thoughts.   The stock has some nice curl in it, so I suspect that  it may have a mix of softer and harder parts.   I have some walnut in the shop left over from non-ML projects that I will use to get a feel for the way it handles.

Jeff, the butt stock moulding and the forstock moulding were first on my places to start.  I had different reasons tho.  I was worried about my own carving abilities and thought those places might get me started. 

For a number of reasons then, simpler carving elements likely be used.  I've been looking at J. Dickert, noticing that his carving tends to be less complex and does include incised work.  Maybe that will be the way to go.  Think I'll get that walnut chunk out today.  Steve, don't hunt too hard for walnut.  I've got enough to make plenty of mistakes.

Regards,
Pletch

[Blacksmoke]

Larry,   Walmut certainly does take extra care to carve, esp. if it is not very dense.  Howeber it can be done with a lot of patience.   John Bivins said that at times you can hold the result of a whole days work in the palm of your hand---a few shavings from carefull carving of walnut.  Attached are several photos of a horn plugs that I carved out of walnut.    Hugh

[Larry Pletcher]

Hugh,
Beautiful plug!  You set the bar mighty high.  I just found a piece walnut in the shop to  experiment with.  I appreciate all the encouragement.
Regards,
Pletch

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Hugh, you've done a great job on the horn, but the carving is wonderful. 
I recently purchased a good walnut blank and .25 cal barrel from Chris Laubach, and intend to create a rifle inspired by T. Allison of Western PA.  It will have both relief and incised carving, and I know it'll be a challenge.  Larry, just take your time with it.  Keep your chisels hospital sharp and under full control.
Hugh, thanks for the encouragement.

[Mike T]

If you have a problem seeing the pencil line on walnut, try using a silver pencil available at stationary or art supply stores.  I've found this helpful on walnut and mahogany.