Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1915 — HUNT BLACK WALNUT [ARTICLE]

HUNT BLACK WALNUT

Demands of War Cause Shortage in Supply. Is the Best Wood for Gun Btocks and Experts Are Trying to Find a Suitable Substitute—Two Dying Trees Sell at Top Price. Washington.—The European war baa caused a marked shortage in black walnut for the manufacture of gun stocks, and agents of gun manufacturers are scouring the forests. Recently two partly decayed black walnut trees in the Arkansas National forest, Arkansas, were sold at S2O per 1,000 feet on the stump. This is the highest price ever paid for any unfinished hardwood so far as is known, and certainly for any sold from a national foreßt.

The two Arkansas trees were 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 pioneer's made rifle stocks of maple, but in war times the musket stocks were of black walnut. At a convention of gunsmiths held in Atlanta, Ga„ in August, 1861, the consensus of opinion was that black walnut was easily the superior of all hard woods for gun manufacture, with maple second and persimmon third. It was held that gun stock material should be air-dried for 20 years before being ÜBed in construction. During the Civil war 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 a quarter to a half century. The toughness and durability of black walnut is well known.

The forest service has a record of a roof of black walnut shingles in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia that has shed thp rain successfully for 75 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 building was restored in 1912 after a period of 125 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 arfd mules suitable for military use in Europe. Owing to the increasing scarcity of black walnut gunmakers have for some time been experimenting with possible substitutes. It 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 teakwood as a backing for armor plate on the sides of our great dreadnaughts and armored cruisers.

The general public is riot aware that a three-inch backing of teakwood lies behind every belt of armor, acting as a sort of cushion between the armor and the steel hull proper. The reason for this is that the back of the armor 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 Orford cedar, a product of the Northern Pacific coast. Teakwood is popularly regarded as imperishable. The scientists are not very hopeful of finding a suitable substitute for it. There is some talk of making tests with different 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 resistant 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.