Hope this is an easy answer.
What type of wood are the original M1917 stocks? Walnut or some other? My Winchester stocked Eddystone looks like walnut but.......I'm no timber expert.
Cheers
Adrian
Hope this is an easy answer.
What type of wood are the original M1917 stocks? Walnut or some other? My Winchester stocked Eddystone looks like walnut but.......I'm no timber expert.
Cheers
Adrian
walnut. I have never seen otherwise.
You can never go home again.
My Eddystone has an obviously Winchester stock(big W on the tip)....doesn't look like normal dark walnut stocks as usually seen on M1917 rifles as it's rather light in color. I asked much the same question here after I got the cool old rifle and was assured it about had to be walnut....
Hi Stephan
My Winchester stock is quite dark with nice figuring which was why I was fairly sure it was walnut but not 100% sure. I googled American walnut and some of the images show it being quite light but I'm no expert.
Yep you're right. They are cool old rifles!
Cheers
Adrian
Phillip McGregor (OFC)
"I am neither a fire arms nor a ballistics expert, but I was a combat infantry officer in the Great War, and I absolutely know that the bullet from an infantry rifle has to be able to shoot through things." General Douglas MacArthur
Walnut can vary in shade, from very dark to very light. Color is affected by age of the tree and what part of the tree it comes from---closer to the center it is dark, outer part closer to bark will be lighter, so called sap wood. Military was very particular about this and of course years of conditioning with BLO will darken it as will use & sun light. Many inexpensive sporter rifles when you refinish you can see both colors in same blanks. Makers do a good job of blending these in.
And then there are some Europen walnuts, very close grain and lighter colors. The US got some walnut from Italy and used them for Krags. Some collectors will pay a premium for these rifles.
Last edited by dave; 10-03-2016 at 12:08.
You can never go home again.
walnut, and Birch replacement
if it aint broke...fix it till it finally is.
I have seen plenty of M1917 rifles in birch.............but , like Chuck, I think they were replacements. The parts houses like Numrich had new birch stocks for the M1917 through the late 70's.