Cantom.....you have a birch set. You can tell by the stripped or darked toned area and the graining in the wood. Some birch set can come close to the yellowish orange of maple however will not have the grain structure. Should also point out that birch was approved as an alternate to walnut. Maple came into use in late 1944.
What kind of wood is this?
- Thread starter cantom
- Start date
rgg 7:
I'm not sure I agree with you.
This photo CLEARLY looks like Birch.
However, Maple can also look "flamed" like birch if cut a certain way, or if the tree had an erratic growth pattern.
Look at this photo of the same stock.
Note the while lines in the grain that did not take any stain or color? this line pattern is very characteristic of maple and is not found in any Birch stock I have ever seen on a Savage or 1942-44 era Longbranch. I'm tempted to say it's a 1944 era maple stock, perhaps a replacement forestock dating to the time the buttstock got that heel repair?
You could still be right that it's birch, but I would want to see the rifle in person before making a final decision either way.
I'm not sure I agree with you.
This photo CLEARLY looks like Birch.
However, Maple can also look "flamed" like birch if cut a certain way, or if the tree had an erratic growth pattern.
Look at this photo of the same stock.
Note the while lines in the grain that did not take any stain or color? this line pattern is very characteristic of maple and is not found in any Birch stock I have ever seen on a Savage or 1942-44 era Longbranch. I'm tempted to say it's a 1944 era maple stock, perhaps a replacement forestock dating to the time the buttstock got that heel repair?
You could still be right that it's birch, but I would want to see the rifle in person before making a final decision either way.
Sorry, it is two different wood sets. I removed the low cut set and installed the other set last night. I thought them both to be maple but if they didn't start using maple till 44, it's likely that they're both birch I guess. It's a trifle confusing isn't it? The two are pretty similar looking.
I don't believe they made any replacement sets with low cut forends...the low cut one is serial numbered in the 10L series.
I don't believe they made any replacement sets with low cut forends...the low cut one is serial numbered in the 10L series.
I'm not convinced maple was only used in 44. I've had two 1942 dated LB's that did not show any sign of refurbishment with serialized matching maple stock sets. One of them now resides in Badgerdog's and Angel's Enfield collection.
Birch has small straight lines through it like beechetc they are dark rather than red. The open wavey grain you see is because the blank was flat sawn as opposed to quarter sawn. The banding is very indicated of birch....can see it on a lot of Savage stocks and many of these are are yellowish or reddish brown. Also birch is very heavy....much heavier than walnut or maple. It makes for a very strong stock. Nice to see an early one with the cutout for the cutoff that never incorporated into the regular production run of guns.
