What wood can look like coachwwod?

PerversPépère

PerversPépère

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I finally got a nice 1943 Aussie coachwood set for my 1921 dated Lithgow SHTLE.
Only fly in my happiness, I still have to find a proper front upper handguard.
If I can't find it, I'll have to content myself with an Indian mahogany one or make one from a plank of similar wood.
Coachwood is not the easiest wood to find around here.
Would common birch have a similar enough grain flow and be able to take dyes and oils to replicate the coachwood's color?
PP. :confused:
 
I'm a long time hobby wood worker but I've never heard of "coachwood" as a wood type. You're likely going to need to post up a good looking natural color photo to give us a helping hand.
 
BCRider said:
I'm a long time hobby wood worker but I've never heard of "coachwood" as a wood type. You're likely going to need to post up a good looking natural color photo to give us a helping hand.
Click to expand...

It's a tree growing in New South Wales and Queensland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopetalum_apetalum
Due to its abundance and good charactéristics, it was chosen for outfitting Aussie Enfields.
PP.
 
Luan or Philippine Mahogany may work.

Edited to add: Luan may be to red, Teak could be an option.

If you post a pic I may be able to get you a match. I have about a dozen front upper handguards that are missing the sight rails. Let me know if you are interested.
 
Steppenwolf said:
Luan or Philippine Mahogany may work.

Edited to add: Luan may be to red, Teak could be an option.

If you post a pic I may be able to get you a match. I have about a dozen front upper handguards that are missing the sight rails. Let me know if you are interested.
Click to expand...

Ouch!Teak has a much more open grain; I fear it won't replicate the looks of that stock.
Anyway, I'll have a look.
Thanks!
PP.
 
Darn, I was just talking with a friend of mine of friday about paddle making and wood species, and coachwood and lookalikes was part of that. However, I've forgotten already. I shoot him an email and get back to you.
 
Luan, otherwise known as Philipine mahogany, is not the highest grade sort of wood. It would be just about the last thing I'd want to use as any part of a gun stock.

A google for "coachwood" was useless. Too many retirement communities with that name.... :D I tried "australian coach wood" just now and at least got a Wiki hit that made sense. But no pictures of what the wood looks like other than that its other name is "scented satinwood".

Hold on, I tried adding "images" and got this;
F39623.jpg


It's hard to say if this is the wood simply oil finished. But if it is then I think there's a few different options that would look very close when oiled. Beech or birch come to mind. Beech would have more of the speckled grain look but birch when oiled and after some exposure to the sun should honey up to a color very close to the picture.

If you wanted to speed things up birch with some tan to light brown leather dye as a "stain" to simulate a year of sunshine on the wood should provide a pretty close match.
 
Is it me or are the rear sight guard ears backwards on that SMLE ?

That production date is late too, must have been one of the last ones off the Lithgow line.
 
Not too worried about that. It's just a picture that came up from the search. The key issue is if it looks like the same sort of coach wood that the OP's rifle looks like.
 
Depending on the color I agree that cherry could be used. If the stock wood already on the gun is one of the lighter variations as seen in the examples posted by 5thbatt then the non reddish sapwood could be used. On cherry only the heartwood is reddish. The sapwood is your basic creamy color. The wood could then be dyed with some sort of stain as required to match the existing wood nicely.
 
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