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Message started by skeet1 on Jun 20th, 2017 at 1:55am

Title: Re: Krag action wrench
Post by butlersrangers on Jul 12th, 2017 at 3:00pm
'skeet1' - Your photo is not close-up enough to see your stock's wood grain. The color appears to be Italian walnut. Italian walnut stocks have a distinctive grain that is different than American black walnut. (Lots of them have burl and 'tiger stripe').
IIRC, 33,000 Italian walnut stock blanks were purchased in 1899. The Krags using these stocks will usually have 'cartouche dates' of 1899, 1900, and 1901. Some of these stocks were stained at some point. Probably so that they were more uniform with a unit's other Krags.

From what I have read, Krag and 1903 Springfield black walnut stocks (also 1873 Springfield stocks, I bet) were stained with 'logwood stain'.This was done until the late 1920s and gave the walnut issue stocks a reddish-brown color. This was done prior to the stocks being dipped into heated vats of raw linseed oil.

Staining with 'logwood' was discontinued as an armory economy move, in 1928.


You can use the KCA search box and enter "Italian stocks" to bring up prior postings on this subject.

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