144 Discussion of Industries 
FIREARMS 
Black walnut is the only wood reported for the preduction 
of gunstocks, with the exception of 2,000 feet of Circassian 
walnut. The selection of the most suitable gunstock wood has 
been carefully considered, and American black walnut has 
always been given preference for arms of the ordinary grade. 
For high-grade shotguns and rifles the beautiful Circassian 
and Italian walnut is imported. Black walnut is easily worked, 
moderately heavy, polishes well, and has a pleasing appearance. 
The rough blanks are first rough-sawed from thick lumber and 
the ends painted to prevent checking. The blanks are then 
shipped to the factory where they are seasoned in dry kilns. 
A large number of operations are required to produce the 
finished stock, including, in addition to these preliminary 
steps, shaping edges for guide surfaces, routing and chamber- 
ing, cutting of recesses for attaching the butt swivel-plates, 
routing out the space for the magazine, trigger guards, or tangs, 
and the final staining, hard finishing, polishing and dipping in 
linseed oil. They are then ready for the assembling room. 
The turning of the curved surfaces of stocks is accomplished 
by the most ingenious automatic machinery. 
Black walnut for gunstocks generally comes from the wood- 
lot areas of the Central West, the original heavy stands having 
long since been cut over for furniture for which the demand 
has been very large. The main walnut supply is now located 
in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Tennessee, and 
West Virginia. Sapwood is now used as well as heartwood for 
most rifle stocks, and staining gives it a uniform color. It will 
serve the purpose, but is not nearly as satisfactory in feel and 
appearance as the denser heartwood. In the old Missouri 
muzzle-loaders curly maple was sometimes used. 
Yellow birch and red gum are also used for gunstocks but 
are not reported in New York State. The difficulty in using 
birch is that it is hard to find a satisfactory method of stain- 
ing the stock a walnut color which will penetrate and not wear 
off. Experimentation has been made upon laminated construc- 
tion for use in military stocks, which are subject to heavy 
strain both from recoil and during use of the bayonet. 
