Chinese elm stocked Japanese Tea House Rifle

[Herb]

My friend Arn Ufford built my wife a Japanese Tea house, 10x16 feet with a hardwood maple (from Vernal) floor. In turn, I built him a rifle. It is a Jerman Jordan style, page 56 in Ohio Long Rifles Vol II by Whisker. Barrel is a .40 L.C. Rice 13/16 x 38", lock a Durs Egg, trigger guard a Leman, my hand made trigger. The stock wood? Chinese elm, which Arn makes furniture with. He wanted it unstained. Took me 11 coats of gloss Formby's Tung Oil to fill the grain, and then it looked like marble. I like it.

Closeup of the cheek grain

Lock side.

Just for contrast. Left is a .50 I built for Carl, right is a .54 Henry Albright Lancaster I also made. But Arn wanted no decoration at all, just good wood to look at and use. I tested stains on a slab of it, and Fiebing's tan Oil Leather Dye gives it a very nice color, though there is no stain at all on Arn's rifle.

 

[gmww]

Very Beautiful. Is it just me or is there a pair of eyes and the bridge of a nose looking looking out in photo #2. :applause:

 

[pathfinderifh]

Very Beautiful. Is it just me or is there a pair of eyes and the bridge of a nose looking looking out in photo #2. :applause:

Looks like the pictures of the North wind.Long flowing hair and beard.[Like I used to have before the genes took over :cry:]

 

[crgabel]

Sweet! Nice work Herb :master:

 

[rich pierce]

Very nice rifles. The wood looks a little like sycamore. How did it work? Is it hard and strong?

 

[Herb]

Thanks, everyone. I hadn't noticed that "face" before, but sure can see it now! Wish I could have done that on purpose. Rich, I like working with the wood. Have to be careful scraping it, because the scraper will cut into the softer spring growth rings (the dark streaks). Have to use a sanding block. Though the rest of the grain didn't need filling, those dark streaks drank it up. I'd put on the soaker coat, let it dry and sand it off, then repeat. Finally went to just painting the streaks with a small brush, less to sand off. They finally came up level with the surface. The wood did not seem brittle and is adequately strong for rifle stocks. But I usually reinforce the wrist of rifles I build with a 5/16 threaded steel "All-rod" from the tang inletting to the center of the butt, 13 or 14" long, "glued" in. I did that on Arn's rifle. By the way, "Chinese elm" is more correctly "Siberian elm", Ulmus parvis (I think). World's worst shade tree, but common in the plains of the west. An invader of grasslands or idle fields.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Close,Herb.Actually Ulmus parvifolia,but you're so close that we'll accept "parvis" :front:

Beautiful workmanship on all three!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Very nice and certainly unique!

You're also a shoe-in for the "Most Interesting Subject Line" at the Forum awards banquet this January.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Beautiful Rifle.

Years ago, Kansas State and Extension Forestry was promoting the Chinese Elm for gunstocks. It has an intertwined grain and is light. Its physical characteristics is ideal for gunstocks. In case you havent taken a chunk of it and attempted to split it or break it, it is tough. The Forestry boys didnt have enough stroke at that time to get it to catch on.

Again, Beautiful Rifle.

(Up on the plains where those trees grow prolifically, they have another name for them.)

Bill

 

[3 stinky dogs]

That is a nice rifle for sure.Is the name of the companey Vernal ?

 

[Herb]

No, the hard maple is from trees that grew and were cut in Vernal. The city cut them to enlarge a parking lot. I don't know what species they were. We have boxelder, red maple, and others, but not silver (soft) maple or hard sugar maple. They planted many kinds of trees here, species that I knew in Iowa, including black walnut. Arn's business is Arn's Woodshop. And that "Chinese" elm can have really hard wood where it is well figured. I like it, and told Arn I wanted some killer feather crotch wood to build some kind of rifle for myself. Bountyhunter, who'd buy a Chinese (or P*** elm) stock? Have to have a catchy name, like "lacewood" (which is a different species, but who'd know the difference)?

 

[Old40Rod]

It does seem like a living thing... BRAVO!! :thumbsup:

 

That is a nice rifle for sure.Is the name of the companey Vernal ?

Vernal is a small town in eastern Utah famous for Dinosaurs, and where Herb calls home.

 

[Herb]

Static, I pointed out to Arn the "face" in his stock, and he sees a double horned dinosaur! But, gmww, it is a fantastic face! And Forester, thanks. Wrote that name down from a trees and shrubs book, but can't find my notes.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Herb,
I sure would if I had a choice. Maybe just because it is different. The Lace Bark Elm has a similar grain structure as the Siberian. Red Elm is real pretty, but it is straight grained and splits end for end with the least excuse. So many of the lower priced guns were stocked with Sycamore. I just think that the elm is much nicer figured and it is something unique. Everyone, including me, has a rifle with a fiddleback maple stock. Not every one has a pi** elm stock. Think about it, if it breaks, you have a club.......

After sending the link to your pictures to several shootin buds, they are all talking about getting some elm cut and dried to make some stocks for their rifles. Dont know if it would become a rage, but it sure would interest some once they have seen them.

Bill

 

[Herb]

You asked me in a PM how Arn cuts this wood for a stock. He said that the tree should be cut in winter (or after the leaves drop in the south). The upper branches of the tree bend and grow away from the wind. He saws those off, then slabs the wood so that the grain follows the natural bend of the tree. Buttstock is the crotch grain, and the muzzle of the rifle is toward the stump, where the grain is straighter. For a fullstock, about six feet long and 3 inches thick (can be down to 2.5 or even less). The length is to allow for sawing off cracked ends. Now, he only ever cut one stock as far as I know, but he sure knows his wood. (He suggests the name "Western elm"). The wood (He uses a lot of it for furniture and cabinets) boards or flitches (if for stocks) he soaks in a wetting agent. This causes the bark to fall off, dissolves the starch and greatly lessens pressure checks. He invented his own wetting agent to remove flour gold in mining, it is 27,000 times wetter than water (Has a patent on it). He said you could use Amway Tween 20, about 1/4 cup to 300 gallons of water in an 8' galvanized horse trough. Soak 2 or 3 days, water turns black from the starch, which is the problem in wood stability. If kiln dried, it hardens the wood, otherwise in our dry climate, maybe two years to air dry. He says the wood mills, routs and turns very smoothly. There is a lot to recommend this wood for gunstocks. He says the Chinese tap the tree for sap, like we tap sugar maples. They also eat the seeds, though as I remember them they are small, flat papery things. I told him I want a really nicely crotch figured piece, or several, I intend to use more of it.