, 1916-01-13
HUNT BLACK WALNUT
Demands of War Cause Short.
age in Supply.
Is the Best Wood for Gun Stocks and
Experts Are Trying to Find a Suit
able Substitute-Two Dying
Trees Sell at Top Price.

Washington.-The European war has
caused a marked shortage in black
walnut for the manufacture of gun
stocks, and agents of u manufac-
turers r securing the forests.
Recently two partly decayed black
walnut trees in the Arkansas National
forest, Arkansas, were sold at $40 per
1000 feet on the stump. This is the
highest price ever paid for any unfn-
ished hardwood so far as is known,
and certainly for n sold from a ma
tional forest.
The two Arkansas trees we're in
splendid condition for manufacture in
the near future, being well cured.
Black walnut has long been recognized
as the best material for gun stocks.
The American pioneers made rifle
stocks of maple, but in war times the
musket stocks were OF black walnut.
At a convention of gunsmiths held
in Atlanta, Ca, in August, 1861, the
consensus of opinion vas that black
walnut was easily the superior Of all
hard woods for gun manufacture, with
maple second and persimmon third, 1t
was held that gun stock material
should be air-dried for 20 years before
being used in construction.
During the Civil wal walnut for
gun stocks was obtained both in the
North and South by purchasing miles
of fence rails, and by taking floors
and beams out of old barns and mills
where the wood had been seasoned
for q. quarter to a half century. The
toughness and durability of black
walnut is we'll known.
The forest service has a record of a
root of black walnut shingles in the
Shenandoah valley of Virginia that
has shed the rain successfully for rs
years. A black walnut beam used
in the construction of the famous
Alamo at San Antonio, Tex, was found
to be perfectly sound when the build
ing was restored in 1912 after a
period of 1875 years.
Apparently buyers have been about
as eager to find black walnut suitable
for immediate use in the manufacture
Of gun stocks as they have been to
purchase horses and mules suitable
for military use in Europe. Owing to
the increasing scarcity of black wal
nut gunmakers have for some time
been experimenting with possible
substitutes.
1t is understood that the forest
products laboratory at Madison, Wis,
is making tests of gun lumber, which
heretofore has been considered of a
rather low grade, as a substitute for
walnut for gun stocks.
The laboratory also is conducting
experiments designed to develop a
substitute for lockwood as a backing
for armor plate on the sides OF our
great dreadnaughts and armored
cruisers.
The general public is lot aware
that a three-inch backing of teakwood
lies behind every belt of armor, act
ing as a sort of cushion between the
armor and the steel hull proper. The
a for this is that the back of
the MI and the steel hull are both
rough and do not meet exactly. The
backing of teakwood serves to bring
the two more firmly together, the
~protruding rough places on the steel
sinking into the wood.
Up to date no suitable substitute
for teakwood has been found. The
most promising is Port Oxford cedar,
g product Of the Northern Pacific
coast. lockwood is popularity re-
garded as imperishable. The scien-
fists are not very hopeful of finding
a suitable substitute for it. There is
some talk of making tests with diff.
ferent varieties Of hardwood from the
Philippine islands. So far only woods
found In continental United States
have been used.
In addition to the laboratory tests
conducted in Madison, tests of the re-
sistant qualities OF different woods
when exposed to the action of salt
water between plates of armor and
steel are being carried on in the Gulf
OF Mexico and off the Pacific coast.