I just got a Bridgeport mill and I'm toying with the idea of making a long-range black powder bench gun. I'd want it to look like it could have been built 150 years ago.

So did they have good wood glue back then?

They certainly were capable of making veneer but glues were not the best .They were usually hyde or casein types ,not the best for water resistance.

LDO, My pop has lots of furniture that is that old that is simply dovetailed and glued, and it still holds together great, one piece is an often (heavily) used work table.

Don't know if that tells you much, but they definitely had wood glue back then, and good wood glue is a pretty simple one, I'm pretty sure they never laminated any gunstocks back then though, so I guess the 'could have been' part might be there, but the 'did they do' back then part wouldn't be......

Let us see how the project comes out!

Good Luck--Don

Probably, plywood has been around a long time. The British Mosquito was a plywood airplane, after all. If they could make a stable plywood wing for all weather conditions in 1937 I'm sure they could make a stable stock laminate. That's not 150 years but the glues were pretty much the same.

But our forebearers were pragmatic and wouldn't take what was cheap at the time (solid gunstock wood) and make it more expensive just for the heck of it. Today's volume production systems mean that bulk laminated birch can be made cheaply enough to compete with solid walnut stock wood without the gosh-awful look of solid birch.

OK, if someone wanted to build a big stock like a modern heavy bench gun, what kind of wood might be used?

Lumber grade mahogany is cheap, dense and comes in big pieces. Otherwise, extemely plain walnut is still quite cheap. Especially black walnut.

Cool. Thank you.

People have been laminating wood used in bows and arrows for at least a couple thousand years. The adhesion strength and durability needed on a Mongols compound bow far exceeds anything you will need to laminate the wood for a gun stock.
So at least laminating has been around for a couple Millinia, whether or not it was commonly used for black powder target firearms is another interesting question..................DJ