Log In
June 18, 2022
Offline
This is a recent acqusition a nice clean 1932 barrel dated .22 Model 52. Second model with a Gumwood stock. It looked like crp when purchased, no scope dark color wood, and mottled brown reciever. – a few hours stripping sscraping sanding to remove the shellad ans stain . numerous coats of a water based walnut hull stain i make .Winchester used Walnt hulls but boiled them in oil . water base is handy makes new walnut look like older growth walnut..but i’m satisfied the gumwood resembles walnut as best as it can here.. Mossberg Anachromatic scope i had, sighted in at 30 feet, while i look for a Fecker i think.
June 18, 2022
Offline
It’s a post reticule scope my favorite. The eye relief makes the foucs picture is more like a peep apeture , than a wide field picture Make walnut stain by taking big plastic bag of green hulls , putting them in a 5 gallon spackle bucket, add 3 gallons og boiling water and let stew for 6 to 10 months .the longer the it sits the darker the color, take it ou poke holes in the bottom and strain into the bucket yeild gallon and a half or more.
November 1, 2013
Offline
Ralph Fitzwater said
This is a recent acqusition a nice clean 1932 barrel dated .22 Model 52. Second model with a Gumwood stock.
Ralph, Gumwood was never used on 52s. Might have been a lower grade walnut, but it wasn’t gumwood. Glad to see you didn’t apply any kind of gloss finish, & the color looks about right.
I found out all I wanted to know about walnut hull stain when my father set me the task of de-hulling a bushel basket of fresh black walnuts from a tree on our property.
June 18, 2022
Offline
you’re wrong ,i’ve been a woodworker for 60 years and walnut has always been a favorite i can tell by the smell whn cutting.Winchester state it was available on special order as well as any other grade wood. there are no “cut and dried rules ” with somethings , it depends on the day or time the blanks were turned.,if the woo shop had no choice one week until the next batch of walnut blanks was ready they would substitute Gumwood.
June 18, 2022
Offline
gumwood is a green-yellow tone not brown– color in nature my walnut stain give it the decent walnut look.it’s gumwood believe me.
June 18, 2022
Offline
there is no such thing as “never” in volume production. many .22 were stocked in gumwood ans a 52 is a .22
March 12, 2008
Offline
I have to agree with Clarence on this one. I have owned and examined lots and lots of 52’s over the years. Never have I seen a gumwood stock on a 52. This was Winchester’s “flagship” rimfire target rifle and I cannot ever imagine them substituting a gumwood stock on these rifles. I have never seen a gumwood stock on any Winchester 22 except for the early low cost boy’s rifles. Not that it proves anything, but I happen to have the original Winchester blueprint for the rough cut blank of the stock used on your 52 rifle. As for material, it states “Selected American Black Walnut”.
I’m sure if someone wanted gumwood bad enough, Winchester would have made you one on a special order basis, but I have to ask “why”? If one was installed on a production, non special order rifle, I feel it was a mistake and not due to a lack of walnut.
Steve
June 18, 2022
Offline
These are for comparison Clarence, on the left are the scrapings using a glass microscope slide
from the day before, taking from under the dark stain from Winchester off the stick.. on the right is actual walnut from a different stock .above That being a Brown-Van Choate 1871 Military trials carbine- decent example of wblack walnut. that too has the water based walnut stain under linseed oil. Clarence you’re “shooting the breeze” in remarks claiming i don’t know what walnut looks like, i’ve carved it made furniture from it ,burned it , refinished dozens of walnut gunstocks over the years to know .
