Savage No.4 Mk1* queries

[DCJ70]

I was hoping someone here could tell me what the stock wood is? Also, any information on the foresight protector as all other parts except for the magazine are stamped Savage. Would the original protector have recesses? Serial number is 32C9532. Many thanks.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[jona]

Most likely birch as that is what Savage used. The sight protector was made by Fazakerley, so at least one part has been replaced.

[me2]

I've seen Savages dressed in Beech also and less commonly walnut. It really depends on where a particular rifle has been during it's military service and to what extent repairs and replacements were performed.

[RMeissner]

My Savage has walnut stock see Lee Enfield No4 Mk1 T (Retrofit) for some pictures.

[tbonesmith]

I'd always though that they were Poplar. I've cut one up that I thought was pretty typical and the timber colour was very pale white under the reddish stain/finish that's on most of them.

[Peter Laidler]

TBone is right to think about poplar. It's one we forget about. Not common because it was in demand elsewhere but was certainly used/approved when needed. Other wartime industries had first call on poplar wood. It was certainly used in the wartime furniture industry and the Swift rifles used poplar, cut down before the war from around Oxfordshire by the local makers whose name I forget now........

One of the old now long retired female wood-workers at the Base workshop here told me once that you knew what it was as soon as you started to work on it although I don't ever remember noticing it. Maybe I haven't ever cut or patched a poplar butt or fore-end

As a matter of interest TBone, do you work with this wood at all?

[vintage hunter]

Never would've guessed Poplar for gunstocks. Must be be different type that what grows here in the southern U.S. I worked maintainance in a saw mill once that sawed a lot of Poplar for the furniture industry and it was highly prone to splitting warping. The female woodworker was right, you knew it time you started working with it, has a strong but pleasant oder.

[me2]

Yes, Poplar does have a different odor, sort of a sweet smell. I heat with wood principally hard maple, beech, ash & oak but if I come across a fallen poplar I usually saw it up for for use in the early or late periods of the heating season as it does not yield the amount of heat and length of burn needed for really cold weather fires. As soon as I run the cut pieces thru my logsplitter I can smell the aroma of it. It is a fairly soft wood so that might be the reason for it's tendency to warp. I cannot say I have ever seen a poplar stock on an Enfield. Pic is of the overhead in my living room. I chose tongue & groove Poplar for it because of it's widely varying grain patterns, colors and many knots. It has more personality than Pine. Gee, I should have put an Enfield in that pic somewhere!!

[DCJ70]

Thanks for the info guys, interesting how the threads develop!