Eddystone Birch stock?

[Coal Burner]

I have an Eddystone, #1,250,xxx with an 11-18 dated barrel and all Eddystone parts. The whole thing was painted black when I got it, so I stripped the paint off and applied RLO.

The stock is clearly stamped with an "E" at the forend, with no other markings remaining. The wood is very light colored, it appears to be Birch. The handguards are the usual black Walnut. In Stratton's book, he states that all original WWI era stocks for the US Model of 1917 were American Black Walnut, and that some of the WWII replacement stocks were made of Birch. I did not notice anything about this in Ferris's book.

Did Eddystone make replacement stocks during WWII? Were any of the original stocks Birch? It is definitely not a P-14 stock.

Information

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[Tom in N.J.]

No, Eddystone did not make any replacement anything in WWII. The armament plant closed at the end of WWI and Baldwin expanded their locomotive area. Here is a picture of the Baldwin factory site after 1928.

[Chuckindenver]

likely it was made by Milton Bradly, they made a lot of replacement 17 stocks.
under the buttplate it may have a M stamped, my Remington is a Birch stock, with this marking installed by RIA during rebuild..

[Coal Burner]

likely it was made by Milton Bradly, they made a lot of replacement 17 stocks.
under the buttplate it may have a M stamped, my Remington is a Birch stock, with this marking installed by RIA during rebuild..

Interesting - does your Milton Bradley stock have the "R" stamped at the forend? I would have assumed mine was a replacement stock if it were not for the "E" clearly stamped at the end, as well as a couple of eagle heads. I remember a 2 or 3 digit number under the buttplate, I will look at it again when I get home.

[Chuckindenver]

it is marked with an E as well

[Calif-Steve]

I thought 3 different wood types were approved for the M1917 rifle during WWI. Walnut was in very short supply and airplane propellers were high priority for walbut.

[Chuckindenver]

iv seen 2 types of wood, and 3 lengths of buttstocks, and a couple subcontractors of stocks and handguards as well.
Birch and Walnut is what iv seen so far. what is the other type of wood?

[Calif-Steve]

I know "satin walnut" was approved. Also know as sweet gum. I have one such stock.

[Chuckindenver]

iv delt with gunwood on garand and Carbine stocks, no fun...sticky, and rough.
iv not seen one yet for the 17

[Patrick Chadwick]

Just as a marker, my Eddy, numbered 1,299,xxx with 11-18 barrel , has a black walnut stock, was staked on foresight, backsight and both trigger guard screws, and had an "as-new barrel but a helluva lot of dings from being shunted from store to store over 90 years. Everything was properly marked with Es, eagles and inspections numbers as per Ferris pp101-108, and I am satisfied that the rifle is as manufactured (apart from the dings, of course). So they hadn't run out of walnut a month after Coal Burner's example and about 6 weeks before the end of production (the graph on P. 88 of Ferris indicates a production rate of about 100,00 a month!).

So I would assume, unless documentary evidence to the contrary is forthcoming, not walnut = not original.

Just one further thought, Coal Burner: what did you use to strip the wood?

I recently did some experimenting with a walnut stock from a scrapped Mauser, and found that with caustic soda followed by hydrogen peroxide you can bleach European walnut right out to the color of raw beech! Look at the structure of the wood, not the color - maybe it IS walnut and you overdid the chemicals!

Patrick