Lehigh question

[alex e.]

Before i dive into a couple books to verify or not, were many stocked in walnut??

Thanks in advance, Alex

[Stophel]

Haven't seen one yet...but it's not totally out of the question.

[smshea]

Nor have I.... Not to say they don't exist. I think its very safe to say not Many .

[Eric Kettenburg]

About 11-12 years ago there was a local guy here who had a plain Lehigh - fully mounted, not a barn gun - stocked in walnut with a recycled Ketland & Co. lock.  I tried to get it from him to no avail, either via cash or via trading Winchesters (that was his real 'thing').  He just had a vastly over-inflated sense of it's own worth.  He also had a pile of other old guns, various antiques etc. all sitting in a quasi-antique shop/barn getting crapped on by swallows.  Anyway, poor old guy died and his son moved into the place and was busted for manufacturing methamphetamine.  Everything was seized by the state police at Towanda, I think, or maybe the Bradco sheriff, and most of the place was razed.  No idea what happened to all of it.  Only Lehigh in walnut I have ever seen.

[Roger Fisher]

A @!*% crime in more ways than one!

[B Shipman]

For all practial purposes, after 25+ years in the KRA, not one. A vastly extreme exception.

[Leatherbelly]

  JMHO, walnut is just OK if you can find Claro or some others like French. Nice maple is easier to find.Perhaps that's why you only see them in maple.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I can't imagine anyone with access to ANY maple having any desire to work with walnut.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Oh oh!  I bought this piece of walnut with a .25 cal barrel - intend to do a T. Allison Western PA rifle.  Am I right out of my tree, Eric?

[Acer Saccharum]

I think EK's penchant for maple is showing. In general, I like maple better than any other wood I've used. However, a nice hard piece of English walnut is right up there with maple.

[Eric Kettenburg]

Sorry but I have to be plenty drunk to find ANY walnut appealing!  American, Euro....  ick.  I can't stand the way it looks, or smells, let alone works.  Give me a good piece of maple, or even cherry, any day. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Don't beat around the bush Eric.  Tell me how you really feel about walnut.  Ha!! 

I have to agree that when it comes to the longrifle, walnut does not take to rococo carving like maple does.  Then there's the problem with pores that unless filled, seriously take away from the overall look.  Now, mix filling pores and relief carving, and you are starting into a nightmare.  It can be done, but it is not an easy ride.

So, why pick a walnut blank for a longrifle. 

Answer:  I have several longrifles in various grades of maple, as well as a project waiting in the wings in black cherry, and now I'll have a walnut one as well.  Just adding to the variety, and the mystery of building these fabulous and lovely things.

[smshea]

I have to say I am glad that it was not the 1st choice for Eastern Pa. guns as that's what I like best and am also not a fan of working with walnut. The smell , the dust that seems to hang in the air all day..... I know I know..... I'm a cry baby.
 I do love the way a well done walnut rifle looks but I'm glad when its not me doing it .   

[LynnC]

Well, being here in the deep South I work entirly in walnut and cherry.  No one seems to cut our native red maple.  They both shape up into a fine rifle but I do very little carving.  But when I do, the fine grained native black cherry is far superior to our native black walnut. Perhaps if I ever stock a rifle in maple, I'll find it easier than cherry!

[Lucky R A]

       A nice piece of figured black Walnut is a thing of beauty.  The wood can exhibit a variety of beautiful red browns etc.,  that sometimes look like a fine piece of marble.  Most of the finest quality shotguns are stocked in highly figured Walnut.  It you approach Walnut with the same finish techniques that you use on Maple, you will be disappointed, but properly finished it certainly has it applications.  Walnut dust certainly is a lung irritant and your fingers will take on a nice black color when working with it.  I must be strange, but I really love a nicely figured piece of walnut, it just isn't the traditional wood for most longrifles.  It was frequently used in later percussion period pieces, especially when silver inlays were used.   

[Dphariss]

Walnut has its place.
The problem with most walnut is the finish used. Plastic hurts walnut even more than maple.  Walnut finished with plastic often looks like the grain was printed on.

Maple is a superior stock wood but its not "right" for some applications.

I just like curly hard maple.
Dan

[Eric Kettenburg]

"...often looks like the grain was printed on."

That's what my wife says about walnut:  'it looks like paneling.'

[longcruise]

Not wanting to jerk this thread off subject, but I've often wondered why so many of the military arms such as 1803 HF were stocked in walnut when all that maple was so close at hand?

[Dphariss]

Not wanting to jerk this thread off subject, but I've often wondered why so many of the military arms such as 1803 HF were stocked in walnut when all that maple was so close at hand?

Because it was the military I suspect.

Dan

[wbgv]

although I have never seen a walnut stocked Lehigh gun,Shumway,in Vol.2 of RCA,page 478,states that an inventory record ,1762-Christian Springs[not far],shows 139 walnut stocks,156 maple and 22 birch.....so we can assume they are/were out there...

[Lucky R A]

Aw, come on, Dan & Eric!   Now just tell me what is not to love about these two pieces of walnut which are waiting for a special project.   I love nice closely striped maple, but for some projects the beauty of nice walnut is spectacular!!  There is nothing "painted on" or "plastic" about this figure.   

[Stophel]

I love walnut.  I love the smell of walnut.  I grew up in my grandfather's furniture shop making toy guns out of scraps of walnut.

But, I gotta have GOOD walnut, which can be difficult to come across.  Doesn't have to be fancy, just good quality hard wood.