RCA 15

[Curtis]

Great rifle, thanks for the pics and info!  You gotta be proud!

Curtis

[Stoner creek]

Thank you for sharing this fine rifle. It is a beautiful piece. I'm interested in the sling attachments. I see the rear one. What can you tell me about them?  Were they added later or are they more standard to a continental Europe build?
James

I cannot accurately answer this question. The stock forward of the entry pipe has some restoration so the front sling stirrup is missing. There is a sister to this piece which appears to have the same sling stud in the toe.

[kentuckyrifleman]

Really nice to see these color pictures. Thanks for sharing Wayne.

[WElliott]

From my limited experience in having wood tested, the results will not indicate whether walnut is American or European.

[smart dog]

Hi Wayne,
That is why I asked the question about testing earlier.  That is my understanding as well about microscopic examination of wood fibers.  There may be features of Juglans nigra and Juglans regia that make species identification from fibers possible but am just speculating. I believe it is possible with a sufficiently large piece of wood for examination but that is not usually the case with tiny sample fragments submitted to the Wood Anatomy Center. The species of wood seems to be so critical to the discussion of this rifle so I wondered how the species of wood was determined.

dave

[Bill Paton]

Concerning walnut species analysis, I contacted the wood lab in Wisconsin a year or so ago about this. The testing is still available, but the best expert has retired. I called him, and I recall that he reported that the wood has to be clean (not oil soaked) and the bigger the better. However a short match stick size piece split out and running with the grain can be enough for a determination in most cases. ( Under the butt plate seems like a really good place to get a specimen.)  He has to see certain features to make the determination. If those features are present, the ID is quite certain. If they are absent from a small piece, the determination is a bit less certain. The retired expert would do the test privately for $50 per piece of wood.  The lab does it for free, I recall.

Note: All this is from my recollections. My notes are in my files and I am rushing to work right now. If somebody is interested, I can provide contact details past East Coast bedtime tonight.

Bill Paton, Anchorage, Alaska

[rich pierce]

Although not the gold standard a forestry school can do this.  SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse is my alma mater.

I imagine that soon they will do this using a DNA test.

[Eric Kettenburg]

While certainly not 100% by any means, in many cases one can simply make an initial determination just by eyeballing it.  Once you've viewed a lot of German work done in whatever walnut they were using, and compare it to genuine earlier American work in walnut (eastern walnut, not talking about transplanted or grafted west coast stuff) you can at the least get an initial gut feel.  There generally is an observable difference, at least in my opinion/experience.  I'd not try to use such an eyeball test via photos only, however, as it's probably an exercise in futility.  Just going by these good color photos, I can kind of see it going either way!  Which offers no help, I know.  Anyway the more I look at this little sucker, the more I like it regardless.

I don't think the guy that carved this rifle was used to carving many arms.  The stock work is very competent, and the metal work likewise is quite nice.  I don't see the carved decoration as meeting the same standard of training, although I don't in any way mean that as a derogatory statement.  George noted the same thing.  Whether it means anything, I have no idea.

[Dphariss]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Its a great piece and the photos of details are wonderful.
It is my understanding that wood/lumber/timber was an export from the New World to the Old. Its an obvious "back haul" for ships that came here since there really was nothing else and it would be better to haul back something to sell than something like rocks for ballast to be thrown overboard. When this would have started I do not know.  So having an American wood in the stock would not be an absolute for where it was stocked. The TG being made from sheet may be an indicator as well. I would not think this necessary in Europe.  Could it be a replacement done some time in the past because the original was broken?
A person could run in circles...

Dan

[rich pierce]

While wood was exported I cannot recall an example of a European gun signed by a European maker stocked in American black walnut. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but might mean the probability that a gun stocked in American black walnut was stocked in Europe, is slight.