doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com English ?? walnut

You tend to forget Winchester and Remington did not offer a bolt gun until the 1920's. That is why most walnut rifle blanks were coming from overseas. Long rifles generally were not walnut though I am no expert in long rifles.There initially wasn't enough call for rifle blanks until Remington first and then Winchester started producng bolt guns here. Before that it was all custom makers.

Michael J

Winchester came to the Midwest annually and cut boxcars of walnut from Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. They could make whatever they needed. I am sure most rifle builders did likewise.

I think it is a mistake to assume that most of these early makers were limited by materials in that way. They didn't subcontract wood from suppliers they found elsewhere, they cut it themselves. I may be wrong about this, but so are the stories that I learned.

Long rifles were every sort of wood imaginable. I have a nice one that is ash I think. And are not most early 20th century American military rifles of one piece and mostly walnut? Dogleg rifles and military rifles are not my cuppa', but I just can't imagine that US makers had to get their wood from England because they couldn't buy a blank or cut their own locally.

Whatever the source of the name and the nationality of the soil on which it grew, what we call English today is mighty fine stuff. Strangely however, I almost never ever run into a conventional woodworker that uses it or has even more than vaguely heard of it.

Brent

I think we will have to agree to diagree. I believe you are not taking into account that when the demand for bolt action stock work first came on the scene no one would wait for a builder to cut his own wood and then have to season it for 3 to 5 years. The were like most people they wanted it now. There is no doubt we had the resources and the know how but time often plays into the equation. It didn't take long for us to start cutting ur own wood but initially it wasn't avaiable. Mr. Petrov I believe even made mention of this in his excellent book.

Michael J

I agree Mark ... and I'm glad you enjoyed the story!
Best,
Steve

Okay, we disagree. Makers cut wood far in advance as a matter of course. I think it was always available. But then I have a lot of faith in ol American productivity too.

Brent

Juglans regia grown in California for nut production is usually grafted to Claro walnut, Juglans hindsii, root stock. This is becaue Claro is resistant to diseases found in the Golden State's soil.

Lots of misinformtion published on the internet regarding this subject.

Best,

C.

The Romans brought juglans regia into Britain during their occupation and there are still some very large old walnuts on the lands of British aristocracy.American walnut was much depleted during both our world wars but it was still cut by our gunmakers for their use. Parker bought much of their walnut from the DesMoines sawmills in Iowa.Dale Johnson,of Strawberry Point,Iowa, sold walnut blanks by the semi-load to Browning,Winslow and other makers circa-late 60"s and 70's.Dale told me in 1969 that the predictions were that there would not be any American walnut worth cutting in a few years and 40 years later his son,Randy, is still cutting beautiful blanks from walnut grown in Iowa and other midwest states.

IIRC Springfield Armory among others was busy making long stocks for Krags and 1903s and 1917s during that period (G).

Just a long shot, but this conundrum reminds me somewhat of the old expressions for the disease syphilis; if the sufferer was English then he was suffering from the French pox and if he was French why then of course it was the English pox! Could be that this situation has operated similarly except in favor of braggin' rights instead of blamin' rights. Just a thought.
Regards, Joe

Kinda like "French fries".We love 'em no matter if the name is accurate as to the origin or not.

My wife says I write as if everyone already knows what I’m talking about so I went back and reread what I wrote about wood. When I wrote “Imported” wood I meant European thin shell walnut. The early custom makers such as Wundhammer and Adolph were trained in Germany and worked with ETSW. There were no mature ‘English’ walnut in American at that time and they (the gunmakers) felt that all of the wood in America was unfit for a fine rifle stocks. Many companies such as Marlin used ETSW on their higher grade guns but they were all lever action or single shots so no one was importing ETSW in the length for a bolt action rifle. Wundhammer was able to get ETSW long enough for a rifle from Ross of Canada and Adolph got his from Germany. The early Bob Owen guns (Owen Brothers) were advertised as using Italian Walnut. After WWI I seldom see Italian walnut which is now replaced by Circassian walnut as the wood of choice and as the Circassian started to disappear French walnut was next in line. Today when I am asked about which kind of wood is on a classic rifle I say it’s European thin shell walnut, if I say it’s Circassian folks say it’s not fancy enough for Circassian although it was sold in every grade possible. Log on to any auction site and look at a Sedgley and tell me kind of wood that is.