Walnut stocked Colonial/early Independence longrifles?

[Cossack]

I'm no expert and haven't built up a library on long rifles yet, and my Google skills aren't showing much, so I'm asking here:

How common was walnut as a stock material in Colonial-early 19th C America? Most 18th and early 19th Century longrifles I can find photographed have maple stocks unless they were imported from England or continental Europe. Yet I do see contemporary makers build walnut-stocked longrifles in the various Pennsylvania or Virginia styles, etc...

Is there much historical precedent for say a Bucks or Lancaster county longrifle in walnut? I'd love to see some photos, not just as proof, but for enjoyment.
Thanks!
Nick

[rich pierce]

#19 in Shumwa’s book Rifles of Colonial America is stocked in walnut and is likely pre-Revolutionary War, and  some attribute it to Andreas Albrecht.  A William Antes swivel barrel stocked in walnut may be a 1770s gun.  There are others but maple is king, number-wise, in early rifles.  Wallace Gusler wrote about anD showed the Old Holston rifle, mounted in iron and stocked in walnut, likely in the 1770s. 

[Molly]

Looks like walnut was the wood for military and other wood for personal rifles.  Was it cost, availability, durability, carry-over from European ways???

[smart dog]

Hi Nick,
It goes without saying that colonial gunsmiths used wood that was available and suitable for gun stocks.  American black walnut was not readily available to New England gun makers so they tended to use cherry and maple.  I am not sure how common black walnut was in PA, but certainly it was more common as you moved south and west. Red and sugar maple was pretty wide spread from NE to the upper and central mid-west.  I think maple, particularly sugar maple, was widely used because it was available and is generally very strong wood.  American black walnut is not as dense or strong as English walnut and in America, maple likely was a better wood for gun stocks.  Therefore, even immigrant gun makers used to the tradition of using European (English) walnut in their homelands, when faced with a choice between maple and American black walnut chose the former for guns.  I am sure the curly figure in many maple blanks also contributed to its popularity.  Black walnut trees mature at about 150 years so it is unlikely that colonial gun makers were using any plantation, hedgerow, or orchard planted walnut trees, just what was available naturally.

dave     

[Mike Brooks]

I might add to that, all black walnut is not created equal. Some sucks and some is as good as English walnut.

[Pukka Bundook]

Mike,

It goes without saying that European walnut is not all created equal either.  High ground exposed trees being best.

Then minerals in the ground .....   

Black walnut;
Got a lovely piece years ago, from Suzy Biccio.  Didn't pay extra but was lovely wood.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Yes, of course it goes without saying that each species has a lot of variation but in general sugar maple is stronger and denser than black walnut, and so is English walnut.  Richard, which wood would you prefer to work with in general, English walnut or American? In my experience, except for a few instances, I find English walnut to be much better to work.

dave   

[blienemann]

Nick,

from the old records at Bethlehem, in 1752 Brothers Loesch and Albrecht were "to look out at Sugar & Walnut-Trees for Gun Stocks" and Loesch was "to provide a Sugar Tree & get is sawed for making Gun Stocks".

Ten years later the first inventory of the gunstocking shop now moved to Christian's Spring listed 139 walnut cut out walnut gunstocks, 156 maple and 21 birch.

We don't know if the stocks were used up in the same ratio, but there was enough interest to harvest, cut and dry these.

Rich mentioned Shumway #19 in walnut, and there's a rifle that appears to be from the same guy in walnut, plus a few more.  There are quite a few "early unsigned guns" around that might be European, might be made or restocked here, often in walnut that looks like colonial wood.  Keep on looking.  Bob

[Skirmisher]

A note or two on walnut:. For what it is worth, all walnut used by the government for rifles an muskets came from Pennsylvania until the Civil War.  The unprecedented demand for machinable walnut blanks during the war caused the government to procure new supplies from Midwestern sources.  Certainly Pennsylvania makers had plenty of access to walnut in the 18th century if they chose to use it.  I suspect maple was simply a preference of the civilian market.
I do have a French fusil ordinnaire restocked in about 1740, probably in the St. Lawrence valley, and it is an American walnut stock.
Finally, walnut was abundant in southern states, but lacked the density of Pennsylvania wood.  Southern wood could not be formed in a Blanchard lathe, and was therefore unsuitable for military production.  100 percent of Confederate muskets manufactured at Richmond and Fayetteville armories were made from Pennsylvania walnut plank captured from Harpers Ferry Armory in 1861.  Macon Arsenal and any number of other small production facilities in the South used southern walnut, but the rifles appear to have been hand-stocked, as the wood would crumble if machined.
In any case, the US government considered maple for gunstocks early in the 19th century but rejected it in favor of walnut due to maple's tendency to dry rot.  Apparently, this was not a concern for most civilian gunsmiths.
Jim

[Dave Fox]

   I respectfully wish to lodge a couple caveats to assertions made by friend Skirmisher in his thoughtful post in this thread. The statement that "all walnut used by the government for rifles an(sic) muskets came from Pennsylvania until the Civil War" appears to be contradicted by the NPS website on woodworking at Springfield Armory. Therein it is stated Springfield initially obtained its supplies of black walnut locally and then from "the mid-Atlantic states", of which, of course, Pennsylvania is one. Surely contractors who produced M.1816 muskets, such as Adam Carruth of Greenville, S.C., would have found it inexpedient  to have bulk wood shipped from Pennsylvania over primitive roads in the pre-railroad days of 1819 when black walnut abounded much closer.
   Friend Skirmisher also asserts "100 percent of Confederate muskets manufactured at the Richmond and Fayetteville armories were made from Pennsylvania walnut plank" captured by Virginia troops at Harpers Ferry. Initially, I note no muskets were made at Fayetteville and much of the stock material captured by Virginia at the Ferry was finished and semi-finished, not just planks. Plus the inference that all Harpers Ferry wood came from Pennsylvania is addressed in the paragraph above.
   Further, in the spring of 1862, a result of a a very questionable decision, most of the gun stock machinery for producing the Richmond family of weapons and Fayetteville rifles was shipped south and eventually set up in Macon, Georgia. Pretty-much all the remaining captured wood from Harpers Ferry was sent there and finished stocks shipped to Richmond and Fayetteville. But Fayettevilles and Richmonds WERE manufactured from southern sourced walnut, too, though the obtaining of that local walnut was generally a dismal episode. Paul Davie's seminal book "C.S. Armory Richmond" contains several proofs of this, a few of which follow. Letter from Danville, Virginia to the superintendent of armories in Richmond makes note of "the stocks sawed out by contractors" in the Danville vicinity. (page 159) A letter from Richmond to southern contractor Carver & Miller accepting 2236 stocks and another from Richmond stating "we have been buying walnut lumber here & sawing out the stocks" (page 167). February, 1864 letter stating Richmond is sending ten thousand board feet of black walnut to Macon to be shaped into musket stocks. It is notable this is unseasoned wood and thus could not have been from the 1861 Harpers Ferry capture (pages 189 and 191).