Wood Preference?

[Eric Smith]

Think of this as a survey by an inquiring mind.
Let's say, you wake up tomorrow, decide to build a rifle. No customer preferences, no dictates. You have barrels of various lengths and styles,  locks of all types. You decide to build a Lancaster, Reading, Virgina, whatever. What grade of wood do you reach for, and I'm using the Dunlap's scale of 1-7, 1 = striaght grain, 7 = exceptionaly fancy curl. Grab a slab!
The reason I am asking is because when I see a rifle with that #7 fancy tight curl, I just don't think of a working, usable, hunting, varmint killing, game providing rifle, bought and used by some frontiersman living in a cabin in the outermost regions of the frontier in 1790.  I think of some aristocratic planters son who bought the thing solely because it costs a lot and he wanted to show off. A # 5 is pretty good enough for me for the most well crafted rifle a man can make.
What wood do you reach for? I know that fancy wood and great craftmanship will sell to top dollar, but I'm thing about the gunsmith who made rifles to send to the frontier, and lets face it, they all did at some time or another. Sure, they got the occasional order from someone with money for the best, but did that keep food on the table for the gunsmith and the family? My fingers are tired.

[flinchrocket]

I would rather select my wood at a show or other muzzleloading event where I can see what I'm buying. If it has good curl in the butt and forearm that is ok, the rest can get stained dark. I have a nice quarter sawed stump cut stock I'm hanging onto, but usually a 4,5,6 depending where the curl is and how hard it is. It's really all in the architecture.

[Tim Crosby]

 Do you think they paid attention to the grade of wood?

    Tim C.

[Scota4570]

I am working on a pistol.  The wood is the highest grade I could get.  It's got figure.  IT is unfortunately porous and low density.  I think it is fast grown red maple or possibly silver maple.   It does not smell "right" when sanded.  The really dense maple I have worked had a ringing sound when struck.  This stuff makes a thud.  It does not cut clean.   I would have prefered a chunk of plain high density sugar maple.  There is more than fancy figure to desirable wood. 

[rickw]

Back in the day, most of the wood that was available to the gunsmith came from the local sawmill.That wood was also locally grown, so what was available depended on the figure, or lack of it, in a particular log.I'm sure there was some commerce between mills and customers, but I think that if you were a gun maker, your choice in woods was pretty much limited to what your local mill could provide.
Having said that, as a beginning gun maker, I'm going to be working with plain or at most, mildly figured wood.I appreciate a highly figured piece of maple as much as anyone, but there's too much risk for me to use it at this stage of my ability.
Rick W

[Scota4570]

I calculated the density of the wood mentioned earlier.  32 pounds per square foot.  That is pretty low for maple.  That is in the ballpark for various pine woods.

Because density is difficult to calculate on irregular pieces.  Do you all have a way to test a blank for hardness?  Maybe some sort of dent test? 

Mail order wood can be disappointing. 

After I posted this I rigged a way to put my full body weight in a 3/8" steel ball.  This particular piece of wood IS very weak.  It had a dent depth about the same as dry Doug-fir.  All of my other wood scraps, maple, walnut, and mahogany were harder.  The only exception was a scrap of spruce.  I guess I will do this test before I decide to work a piece of wood in the future. 

[rich pierce]

I’m happy with some curl throughout with a maple stock. Density is most important to me if there’s going to be carving.

[Mike Brooks]

I like a plain piece that is as hard as can be if it is going to be carved.

[Not English]

My preference is for something "hard", I'm not as concerned about figure. I built a 3/4 scale SMR caplock out of straight grained walnut. I really disliked working with that wood to the point that it sat on the bench for 20+ years. I ended up  giving it to one of our rendezvous crew's son whose father is a good gunmaker in his own right. It turned out really nice.

[rick/pa]

I like a bit of figure in the wood but I've never built one with highly figured wood.  I'd rather have wood that's hard and cuts well. I just finished a rifle from walnut. This is my second walnut stock. The first was in 1977 and I remembered why I don't like walnut. Too open grained, I had to constantly watch which way the grain ran so I didn't split off a chunk. There's a caveat to this post.  I'm not exactly an experienced or prolific builder. This is my 8th rifle since 1975.  Two walnut stocks, one cherry, 4 with figured maple, and my first one, maple with very little figure.

[J.E. Moore]

Just my assumption which isn't worth much but I would say at that time that a rifle maker would obtain his wood from them most accessable source, I'm sure they were plenty of storm struck uproots that had started the seasoning process. I think in that time before mass logging had took place that the fancy curly/striped wood that I like was probably not that rare.
 I would imagine that if I we're building rifles in that time for customers coming down the wilderness road to my neck of the woods that I would use the strongest grain orientation for they were to see hard use, sort of like a military rifle, all go and show would be just a byproduct coming in last to durability.

[Clint]

You may wonder, while looking through the pages long rifle books, who owned these guns? Page after page of really nice designs that not only were well built, but survived in pretty good shape. After pondering that, take a drive through farm country or the rural parts of America. As you drive, count the double wide trailers with brand new RED pickup trucks parked out front or the virtual shacks with new Harly Davidsons. The people haven't changed all that much and the "toys: are similar. Lots of people don't have much, but they have that one thing that makes them feel successful .  Mostly pretty nice guys BTW. Just an observation.

[Eric Smith]

I would thing that, back in the day, highly figured wood would come at a premium. Some really nice wood was desired for furniture and flooring., etc. Figured wood would have sold at a premium as it is today, I like to think.
If I was a longhunter going away for an extended amount of time into wild country, or just a settler on the edge of civilization, I would want a weapon that was sturdy, acurate, adequate, and repairable. The showpiece would be left over the mantle as a conversation piece, thus insuring it would later show up at an auction 200 years later for.......$.

[Panzerschwein]

Cherry.

[stuart cee dub]

   Over the years I have tried various stocking woods in walnut both American and English also a full spectrum of various maple blacks from virtually no curl , cloud figure and even tight curl from one end to the other and quarter sawn stump maple with curl in the butt and then straight grain from the wrist forward .
   My favorite stock blank of all time was a crazy hard piece of relatively straight grain maple with the grain following through the wrist and a smattering of birdseye stained dark brown with the wear areas rubbed back to create an aged effect .
The gun stock blank  was mostly pre- carved and the swamped barrel insetted by Mark Weader at Jack's mountain to the JP Beck pattern that Don Getz ( I am told ) often used for his wood patchbox schimmels .
   I would have to agree that hardness is probably a first priority followed by good grain . I personally have become less interested in super curly wood .I have seen some fantastic pieces of wood crack through the wrist needing extensive pinning and under the hood epoxy repairs . Confidence in the stock strength and durability is a priority for me.
Regarding walnut I haven't had much luck , the soft stuff is easy to make a stock out of but dents easily . One really well figured American halfstock blank was lovely but it was splintery. It's fine for civil war muskets but otherwise I avoid it.
  So to answer your question... Straight hard maple with excellent grain provided that it is creatively finished. Of course in a couple more years my interest may change again       

[GANGGREEN]

I also like unique, so birdseye or something like that would be pretty high on my list.  I'm not even close to a professional builder, probably not much more than a mediocre hobby builder, but all things being equal my attitude is to build with the most stunning piece of wood you can find, which is typically going to be very fancy curly maple given that we also want something really hard and stable.  So far I've been fortunate enough to have found some really fine stock wood that didn't set me back an arm and a leg, so I don't mind using the really good stuff even with my limited abilities. 

I'm guessing that "back in the day" that they payed a premium for fancy curly maple as well and while many were already stretching their family budgets by purchasing any rifle, it's like the people you see today who are driving cars that they can't afford or living in homes that prevent them from even saving a penny, so it wouldn't surprise me that guys ordered the fanciest stock that they could manage.

[Robby]

A good hard piece of well seasoned cherry with good grain structure would be my first choice.
Robby

[WadePatton]

I'd say the BITD gunstocker bought his wood from any of all the nearest mills who had some decent wood on hand.  He would, same as us, shy away from soft or board plain wood-unless nothing else was available the time he needed more stockwood.

Walk around and look inside some of these old barns and outbuilding (and even older homes in the framing) and you'll sometimes see furniture grade woods. I've seen walnut planks in barns, lots of cherry and ash and of course maple.  A friend/sawyer from years ago told me of seeing the boards up in the attic of his rented farmhouse--
They're ALL furniture/veneer grade oak, every one of them, he said incredulously.

Folks used what was available to them and when you set up a mill on the homestead to make stuff, you make stuff with the trees that are taken to create open spaces, figure and species being less of a concern than availability.

I want a piece of firm maple, cherry, or walnut now (with a least a bit of figure or interesting grain) .  Ash is off the list for a minute-it's about like plywood but naturally so.

[Mike Lyons]

I like the prettiest and hardest piece I can get.  I would think when given the option, a lot of the old timers picked  the same way. 

[T*O*F]

We tend to forget that almost ALL wood back in the day was still from old growth forests.  Clear cutting for agriculture was in its infancy so they weren't dealing with random 2nd or 3rd growth wood that had sprung up somewhere.  It was all quality wood that we can only dream about today.  That's why you find all that fancy wood in old construction.

[Eric Smith]

We tend to forget that almost ALL wood back in the day was still from old growth forests.  Clear cutting for agriculture was in its infancy so they weren't dealing with random 2nd or 3rd growth wood that had sprung up somewhere.  It was all quality wood that we can only dream about today.  That's why you find all that fancy wood in old construction.

Dave, I had exactly the same thought yesterday. Walter Edgar, in his book,A History of Soth Carolina, quoted documented accounts oftrees in South Carolina when it was first explored and settled as being sixty to eighty feet tall before the first branches were encountered and almost perfectly straight to that point. What we see today as forests are only the ghost of forrest's our ancestors encountered. If you visit Colonial Williamsburg, go into some of the old original buildings. The wood flooring tells the whole story The growth rings are so tight, while the boards that have been replaced stand out like a sore thumb. It makes sence that quality wood would certainly be available at the edge of civilization, but at some point, secondary growth would have begun to be harvested.
Don't even get me started on chestnut tree's.

[Marcruger]

Eric, I recall an ad (tried to find it but cannot) from the late 1700's by a gunsmith advertising that he'd pay well for fancy figured maple.  That was in Wilmington, NC.  I was surprised because I didn't know there was a gun stocker in Wilmington back then. 

If you are talking about a gun builder back in a cove in the Appalachians, then yes, they may have used what was nearby.  They also made do with a lot of things. 

That said, builders along trading routes like in the Piedmont of NC shipped in parts such as barrels and locks at times, so I see no reason they would not source fine wood.  Trading was a lot more prevalent than we give credit to back then.  Check the archaeology of Jamestown VA.  They were importing stuff from all over the globe in the early 1600s. 

Just some thoughts.   God Bless,   Marc

[B.Barker]

If you look at old original rifles you see wood all over the place in grain figure. The real early rifles had really plain wood sometimes. You can also find southern mountain rifles with really nice figure but extra plain otherwise. I'm not sure that grain figure was as big of a thing back then as it is today. If you think about it most rifles made here in America were made as fast as could be done. These guys were trying to make a living and needed quantity as much as quality. I'm sure they went for hard maple but didn't worry about grain figure unless a customer ask for it. Personally I would rather have a plain hard piece of maple over a super fancy figure piece that wants to chip everywhere or is really soft.

[Bob McBride]

I think when a super piece of curly was ran across it was set aside for the discerning buyer and faux stripes were painted on plain wood on occasion for the tacky but poor. Personally, my favorite stocks are Walnut and finished as black as coffee.

[Clear Spring Armory]

Interesting topic. Im not claiming to know, but I do have a few thoughts that would be more like questions for those who may actually know the answers.

First, I've read here and elsewhere that the period after the Revolutionary War was a time of enhanced competition among gunsmiths, leading to a "Golden Age" that produced some of the best work, as a whole. Would it be safe to assume that fancier wood was used in this period to sell more guns? Have any experts noticed this trend? Maybe not.

Secondly, would figured wood have been as highly prized on the overall lumber market in this time period? If you think about the difficulties of turning this twisted grain raw material into lumber with hand tools, would it be safe to say that your average cabinet maker, carpenter, shipwright, Boat builder, etc. actually would reject anything but straight grained wood? As stated above, hard, straight grain wood was so plentiful, why would they waste the effort. Not to mention the structural problems. Would these factors keep the price down, at least where there wasn't nearly as much price difference between plain and figured lumber as there is now? And curly maple imported to England for high end furniture or something doesn't really count, I dont think. I'm sure the exotic stuff we get from from Africa and S. America nowadays doesn't demand a fraction of the price there.