Black walnut rifle stocks

[old george]

I received a black walnut gunstand from an outfit in Texas done in black walnut with a tung oil finish. I was wondering if anyone has stocked a rifle in this wood and how hard was it to shape etc.?

george

[Scota4570]

Black walnut is among the most common gunstock woods.  The qualities are dependant on where and how it grew. It is easy to work.  IT is open pored so finishing take more time than maple, for instance. 

[pjmcdonald]

George,
I’m a relative neophyte builder but I have done two in walnut. I have a love/hate relationship with walnut. Rough shaping was fairly easy. Detail work was more challenging. The two blanks I had were chippy. Tight inlets were a chore but looked good in the end. I did have more than a few patches but most are nearly invisible.

I love the way walnut finishes out, if you take your time. I did not fully fill the grain on my second. On the first, the grain was so tight it didn’t need much to make it nice and smooth. Incidentally, the first I did had a knot right in the middle of the cheek rest. The swirl looked like a wolf’s eye. Turned out pretty cool in my opinion.

Regards,
Paul

[Fly Navy]

I'm also building a walnut stocked rifle and have noticed the wood chips easy. I'm taking it very slow to help avoid this problem.

[Dennis Glazener]

I'm also building a walnut stocked rifle and have noticed the wood chips easy. I'm taking it very slow to help avoid this problem.

When I first started building longrifles I tried to inlet lockplates as tight as possible. After removing one tightly inletted lock,  in a walnut stock, I quite that foolishness. I started inletting so the plate went in and out easily. I finished that rifle with an oil finish, evidently it caused the wood to expand, when I removed the lock the nose took a large chip out of the walnut lock panel. I was able to glue it back but it made me sick.

Cherry is also bad about chipping out, ask me how I know
Dennis

[rich pierce]

I also find it challenging to transition from working hard maple to working softer woods. But as one who works from a blank and uses hand tools, it sure is easier using drawknife, planes, and spokeshaves on walnut and cherry than hard curly maple. So I “get it” why walnut and cherry were used a lot, in addition to their visual appeal.

[wmrike]

All things being relative, black walnut is a bit brittle and prone to chipping.  Be careful about which way the grain is going and don't get too aggressive with wood removal.  Haste makes waste.  I tend to be a file guy, so wood comes off slowly and I have few problems.  A good finish is built on good pore filling.

As builders of muzzleloaders, we compulsively color our maple stocks.  I feel the same way about walnut, usually using a Pilkington tinted oil or alkanet root to enhance the grain and tamp down any purple tones that might be present..

[t.caster]

Hi George! Yes it is quite common and easy to work for the most part. The acidic smell to the wood dust is hard on the sinuses though. Where you will see it used most is for fowlers, Tennessee rifles, Plaines rifles and shotguns, single and double.

How is squirrel hunting going?

[old george]

Thanks for all the responses guys Tom, haven't done much hunting, my hunting partner started a new job with a different trucking firm and now they say rain for deer opener. How about you?

george

[Scota4570]

When I get a lock plate inletted super close, where I could push it in but might chip on the way out, I use heat to move the wood. Install a couple of screws for handles.  I heat the plate just to straw color and put it in the recess.  Do not force it all the way in, so this several times, incrementally.  This not hot enough to char the wood but will make it plastic and conform to the plate.  The lignin in the wood softens and gives way.  Upon cooling the lignin gets hard again.   The plate with  shrink a smidge and make removal easy.   It is not enough shrinkage to make a visible gap. 

I am not suggesting burning in a lock plate. Do not make the plate that hot. 

This is how Remington did the cheesie pressed checkering in the 1960s.

Taking the burr off the outside edge will also lower the odds of chip out. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dennis, I know what you mean.  When I started out, I inlet everything much too tightly...nothing but grief.  After taking the finished gun to the range for test firing, I'd always have to relieve wood here and there so that it would function without binding.  So now, with that experience behind me, I inlet 'not as tightly'!

[rich pierce]

One factor in inletting tightness is compression that can result from “power stabbing” with chisels with a fairly wide bevel angle. The edge of the inlet is compressed wood which eventually when staining, or finishing, or just exposure to the elements, will eventually expand and bind. One of my earliest build developed stress cracks around the tail of the lock and I think this was the cause.

An inconsequential bevel to parts inletted can be hazardous as well.

[Daryl]

Dennis, I know what you mean.  When I started out, I inlet everything much too tightly...nothing but grief.  After taking the finished gun to the range for test firing, I'd always have to relieve wood here and there so that it would function without binding.  So now, with that experience behind me, I inlet 'not as tightly'!

It shows. 

[Dennis Glazener]

One factor in inletting tightness is compression that can result from “power stabbing” with chisels with a fairly wide bevel angle. The edge of the inlet is compressed wood which eventually when staining, or finishing, or just exposure to the elements, will eventually expand and bind. One of my earliest build developed stress cracks around the tail of the lock and I think this was the cause.

An inconsequential bevel to parts inletted can be hazardous as well.

That exactly why I have a couple of gouges that have the cutting edge on the outside of the radius rather than the more common inside cutting edges. Forgot what they are called. One is the exact radius of the nose of a Chambers late Ketland lock.
Dennis

[Brian Sweeney]

George. What is the company that makes the gun stands? Thanks Brian.

[old george]

Brian,
  Fort SandFlat Products  http://www.gunstands.com/ out of Athens, Texas I got a large corner rack in Black walnut with the shelf.

george

[borderdogs]

I have been interested in using walnut or cherry as a rifle stock I have built furniture using both so have some experience with them. Roger Sells made a Hawken flint using walnut and it came out great it got me thinking I might try it at some point. The last time I used walnut to build a piece of furniture I had to fill the pours of the wood to get it to look right.

Rob